COVID-19 in India: A Review

Editorial

COVID -19, the life threatening viral infection that is now announced as pandemic was first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. It gradually started to spread worldwide and the first case of COVID -19 in India was reported on 30th January, 2020. Immediately the Govt. of India started action against it and forwarded step towards its control. But, the disease continued its spread and currently India has the 3rd highest number of confirmed cases in the world after United States and Brazil. The number of total confirmed cases in India was 1,00,000 on 19th May, 2,00,000 on 3rd June and 1,000,000 confirmed cases on 17th July, 2020.

India’s case fatality rate is among the lowest in the world at 2.41% as on 23rd July which is steadily declining. Six cities accounts for around half of all reported cases in the country- Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Pune and Kolkata. India’s recovery rate stands at 63.18% as on 23rd July, 2020.

COVID-19 Dashboard (9th August, 2020, 8.00 AM)

• Total cases-21,53,010
• Active (29.20%)-6,28,747
• Discharged (68.78%)-14,80,884
• Death-43,379(2.01%)
• Total samples tested upto August 8, 2020-2,41,06,535

How Government fought with COVID -19, Stepwise

• Step 1: On March 22, 2020 India observed 14 hour voluntary, public curfew at the instance of the Prime minister, Narendra Modi.
• Step 2: Mandatory lockdown in COVID-19 hotspots and all major cities.
• Step 3: On 24th March, the Prime Minister ordered a nationwide lockdown for 21days, affecting the entire 1.3 billion person population of India.
• Step 4: On 14th April, India extended the nationwide lockdown till 3rd May. This was extended upto 17th May with substantial relaxations.
• Step 5: From 1st June, the government started “unlocking” the country (barring “containment zones”) in 3 unlock phases. For the quick and effective steps taken to deal with the situation the WHO, United Nations and other designated bodies praised India. For prevention of COVID -19 a multi- disciplinary effort is continuing since the very beginning including the Ayurveda, Homoeopathy, Yoga , Naturopathy and Unani systems joining their hands with the Allopathic system of medicine . The Department of AYUSH, Govt. of India, has announced some guidelines to the general people as preventive measures which are also being adopted by a markable portion of population.

It is hoped that, the efforts of the Govt. with the active support of the citizens, India will be able to fight with the dreadful pandemic successfully by reducing the infection and fatality rate.

*Let us pray the almighty to help the human society to fight successfully in this battle*