Editorial: Monumental failure

It is now clear that the Centre and the BJP political leadership had dropped the guard during the second wave leading to a devastating situation

It has now clearly emerged that the NDA government had failed to anticipate the gravity of the situation and bungled during the second wave of the Covid pandemic. This is not a claim made by the opposition parties but a conclusion by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health which submitted its report in the Rajya Sabha recently. In its 137th report, the panel made it clear that many lives could have been saved during the second wave of the pandemic if containment strategies were implemented on time. The Centre and the BJP political leadership had dropped the guard, leading to a devastating situation. The second wave was marred by a large number of daily cases, increased deaths, shortage of oxygen and beds in hospitals, reduced supplies of medicines and other important drugs, disruption of essential healthcare services, hoarding and black-marketing of cylinders and medicines among others. The pandemic has disrupted livelihoods and left a heavy toll on the economy. Ad hocism and half-measures of the Central government further complicated the situation. The Parliamentary panel has indicted the government for its ‘non-responsive attitude’ towards enhancing the health infrastructure after the first wave receded. The Centre dropped its guard and failed to maintain the momentum of the Covid case management attained during the first wave. The approach of the government machinery in the testing of Covid cases was lackadaisical. It continues to be in denial mode over Covid deaths due to oxygen shortage in the country. With the fragile health infrastructure and the huge shortage of healthcare workers, the country witnessed tremendous pressure.

The Centre could not accurately anticipate the gravity of the possible resurgence of the pandemic and its subsequent waves. Even when the trajectory of Covid-19 cases in the country registered a decline after the first wave, the government should have continued its efforts to monitor the resurgence of Covid and its possible spread. It also failed to manage the distribution of oxygen in the States amidst the skyrocketing demand. There were several instances of patients’ families pleading for oxygen and waiting in queues for cylinders and the media reported stories of hospitals running out of the life-saving gas and making desperate appeals when left with only a few hours of supply. The Health Ministry had claimed in 2020 that the country was self-sufficient in oxygen and oxygen cylinders but this hollow claim was brutally exposed during the second wave of the pandemic. The poor logistic management and the failure in ensuring a quick response from the healthcare system spoke volumes of the utter chaos in the government machinery. There was also a lack of transparency while granting vaccines emergency use approval for Covid vaccines. The rules in other countries are very clearly defined which made the granting of approvals of vaccines and drugs during the pandemic very transparent.

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