India was the second-highest contributor of cases around the world with about 11 million cases. All this due to the high population. But it cannot be ignored that around 97% of patients were healed from COVID in India. Over 1,200 cases and 30 deaths were reported by the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (as of March 31, 2020). The cases were unequally distributed across the country with Maharashtra and Kerala recording the highest number.
Government’s role
- Border control practice for screening passengers.
- Early closure of borders for air passengers from affected countries.
- Barring visitors from selected countries.
- Lower rate of air traffic.
- Media associated with spreading awareness.
- Sudden lockdown helped keep the cases in the control.
- Compulsive tests and sanitization in slums and places with least hygiene.
The Dharavi Model
Dharavi: Asia’s biggest slum. With its narrow streets, congested housing, underfunded health care and poor sanitization, many thought India’s largest slum would be devastated by COVID-19.
Instead of hundreds of daily cases, the biggest slum became the biggest example of Government’s well-planned methods. The streets and restrooms of the slum were sanitized continuously. A single restroom used by hundreds of people and sanitizing it for many times a day was a difficult job for the health workers. The residents did not go to the hospitals even after being tested positive because of the ill-management of hospitals and lack of staff and equipment. The health workers would test every remember of every house even if they showed no symptoms. Dharavi after implementing the new method, in upcoming weeks had been reporting only single-digit increases and the number of active cases is less than 3 per cent of the total and now there are no new cases. The mortality rate is also low.
WHO lavished praise on local authorities after they embarked on an ambitious and comprehensive program to bring the coronavirus under control in a region where social distancing and contact tracing is impossible. A place where 15 members reside in a house of 150 square feet area, the management was not so easy. The Dharavi Model has been adopted in other parts of the country as well.
History’s help
- Broad-based immunity in the Indian population due to the extensive microbial load.
- Exposed to a vast variety of pathogens, including bacteria, parasites and viruses like Malaria, AIDS, Tuberculosis and many more, in the past years
- Role of Indian spices in augmenting immunity as per Ayurveda.
Some states might have failed to manage the number but overall India as a nation successfully brought the count down. And with the vaccines coming up, we can fight COVID easily.
Deepali K.