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I wish there were more data, facts, evidence, logic based arguments; easy to offer opinions and make assertions esp in times of social media fuelled panic during a pandemic. Some numbers on India's healthcare situation that we should note 1/n
2/n India has 3.07m regd nursing personnel ie 1.7 nurses per 1000 pop, 43% less than WHO norms of 3 per 1000; includes nurses, midwives, women health visitors, auxiliary nurse midwives.
3/n 1.2m allopathic doctors regd as on Sept 30th 2018. ~ 80% availability, 0.96M are available for service giving a doctor:population ratio of 1:1,404 against the WHO prescribed ratio of 1:1,000. The shortages vary across states, rural and urban areas. https://www.indiaspend.com/indias-shortage-of-doctors-nurses-may-hamper-covid19-response/
4/n We have a total of 1.89M hospital beds across 69K hospitals of all types: 714K public and 1.18M pvt hospital beds (2019). We have 0.55 govt hospital beds/1000 nationally with Bihar at 0.11! https://www.statista.com/statistics/1128673/india-number-of-public-and-private-hospital-beds-estimated/
Brookings Mar 2020 & CDDEP June 20 reports. Of the approx 1.9M hospital beds, 95K are ICU beds and there are 48K ventilators. 64% of these are in just 7 states (UP, KA, MH, TN, WB, TS, K) https://theprint.in/india/48000-ventilators-in-70-years-50000-with-pm-cares-govt-on-how-fund-is-being-utilised/442252/
5/n India produces 5L PPEs per day today! We produced ZERO in March 2020! PPEs include goggles, faceshields, masks (surgical/N95), gloves (surgical/examination), coverall/gowns, head and shoe covers. https://www.investindia.gov.in/siru/personal-protective-equipment-india-INR-7000-cr-industry-in-the-making
6/n Becore the pandemic India had 8 ventilator manufacturers with an annual capacity of 3360 ventilators. During Covid, 9 more players entered raising mfg capacity to ~ 4L/yr! Less than 2% full blown Covid patients need mechanical ventilator support, overcapacity and v low demand
Other forms of oxygen therapy viz. concentrates, CPAP, BiPAP have been lifesavers. Till March 21, ventilator mfgrs were struggling to recoup losses. Most stockpiled ventilators will likely be unusable over time https://indianexpress.com/article/india/ventilators-manufacturers-covid-19-loss-7233337/
16.3M total cases, 13.6M recoveries, 187K deaths. 7 states (MH, KA, K, TN, AP, UP Delhi) account for ~70% cases
