Impact of Lockdowns by Covid-19 within Healthcare
Published on : Tuesday 14-04-2020
The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has affected every corner of life. The virus outbreak has caused hundreds of millions of lives across the globe. In such a situation, as everything has gone to shut down, the healthcare industry is one that is fighting against the pandemic with standing at the forefront of the war. In order to contain the virus from spreading, many countries, including the UK, US, European Union, and others are currently in some degree of lockdown, with the closure of shops, restaurants, and bars, schools and gyms.
India has already been imposed nationwide lockdown in the initial phase of spreading the Covid-19, encouraging to stay home to avoid catching or spreading the virus. As a result, drugs and medical devices are not reaching the healthcare centers and consumers despite them being exempted by the government, industry reports earlier noted. a
According to the government’s apex biomedical research body, the novel coronavirus-induced lockdown will have a long-lasting impact on the health of the nation and that the travel bans currently in force are unlikely to have any effect in the short and medium-term. On the other hand, the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) described lockdowns as a drastic public health measure. ICMR has come up with the statement at a time when the government was considering extending the 21-day nationwide lockdown.
Previously, AiMeD Forum Coordinator Rajiv Nath said that avoidable restrictions have been imposed by local police on the mobility of the citizens associated with the supply, distributions, and transport of medicines, raw materials, components to make masks, sanitizers and other medical devices to the factories and manufacturing plants which are holding up production, adding to the shortage.
AiMeD further noted that pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers are also facing issues as some of the district administrations in various states/ UTs have incorrectly given directions to close the manufacturing operations in the pharmaceutical and medical device industry also as part of various measures to contain the spread of coronavirus.
Considering several industry reports, we found that the lockdown has also forced to the closure of private healthcare facilities, particularly in towns and less urban areas, which contribute a considerable proportion of the total healthcare burden. Across the nation, nearly 6.9 million people visit outpatient care regularly, in which government hospitals take care of 30% of patients, while private hospitals, private clinics, and other healthcare service providers treat 23%, 43%, and 4% of cases, respectively.