New Delhi: The 15th Finance Commission’s high-level panel on health has cautioned that a Covid-19 mortality rate of above 5% could be a major reason for worry, especially amid an expected surge in infections in poorly served districts.
In a recent meeting of the 15th Finance Commission, top officials of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), too, said every effort must be made to keep the mortality rate below 5%, cautioning that if the number of deaths per day rise to 1,000-2,000, it will become “alarming” for the government, people privy to the development told ET.
The Covid-19 mortality rate in India is around 2.8% now and the country had reported close to 300 deaths on Saturday. The finance commission has requested its expert group on health, which has All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) director Randeep Guleria as convenor, to review its report in the light of Covid-19.
The group is in the process of recommending immediate, short and medium-term measures keeping the pandemic in mind. These recommendations will be critical to deciding the allocation for the health sector by the 15th FC for the next five years, sources said. At the finance commission meeting held on May 21, ICMR officials had said while the Covid-19 infection curve in the country has not flattened, its impact has got distributed “for a long haul of two to three years” as is the case with Covid-related deaths.
They also noted how the current strategy of ‘track, trace and treat’ is working well almost across states, except in Maharashtra and Gujarat.
The commission’s expert group stressed the need for close coordination with district collectors and chief medical officers, besides building a district level telemedicine apparatus, to address a surge in cases at district level.
Almost all members expressed concern about the pressures in case of infection escalation in rural areas with just one district hospital and scarce private facilities, sources said.
Some of the members raised concerns over increasing high viral load on young doctors and healthcare staff and comorbidities in younger age population. The May 21meeting, presided by chairman NK Singh, discussed a range of measures.
Source: indiatimes.com
