NEW DELHI, India—As per the appeal of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the public curfew has come into effect in India. This curfew, which started at 7 am, will last till 9 pm.
While announcing this public curfew on March 19, the Indian PM Narendra Modi had appealed the common masses of India to appreciate the precious efforts medical professionals with clapping, banging utensils or ringing bells in the balconies at 5 pm.
But the medical professionals of India, which is continuously fighting a hard battle against the spread of coronavirus, doesn’t seem happy with Modi’s sweet pills.
A number medical professionals have come out on twitter demanding resources to fight this hard battle.
@narendramodi I don't want your claps. I want your genuine and wholehearted effort in ensuring my wellbeing. I want personal protective equipment. I want better government strategies. I want to have faith in your actions. Do better.
— M (@unkittenish) March 21, 2020
In my hospital, 90% of the ventilators are occupied now, even when there are no confirmed COVID-19 case. Just imagine how the health system will cope up if the epidemic expands.
— Zeeshan Mhaskar (@MhaskarChief) March 20, 2020
I can see a scramble for PPE since they are in such short supply in states like ours. We still have the advantage of being a few days behind on the upslope of this pandemic… Will we heed this advice from The Lancet? https://t.co/F4b4OVjWpm
— yogesh jain (@yogeshjain_CG) March 21, 2020
Today, we spent hours figuring out how to re-structure healthcare facility in our hospital. Which wards and how many beds do we assign for #COVIDー19 patients? How many ICU beds? 1/3 of hospital beds and half the ICU beds. Someone said. The numbers send a shudder down the spine.
— SP Kalantri (@spkalantri) March 21, 2020
According to a paper in the Critical Care Medicine journal, India has just 2.3 critical care beds per 1,00,000 people. Italy – where coronavirus cases have pushed its healthcare system to the brink leading to more deaths than China where the disease first emerged – has 12.5 ICU beds per 1,00,000 people.
While the Indian government has approved a plan to ramp up production of ventilators in the country, an Economic Times report also pointed out that the ban on international flights as well as shutdowns in other parts of the world have meant that critical components to assembly more equipment may not reach India. In other countries, the governments have themselves placed orders for ventilators – Germany has ordered 10,000, while Italy is hoping to buy 5,000.
“The ventilator crisis will come up if and when India reaches the number as Italy’s,” Lifeline Biz MD Vineet Acharya told the Economic Times. “Let’s hope we don’t reach the Italy numbers, because then we are in big trouble.”
