NEW DELHI (UCAN): India came to a grinding halt at midnight on March 25 as the government of prime minister, Narendra Modi, ordered a 21-day lockdown in all the country’s 36 states.
Meanwhile, the Church’s healthcare network, said to be the largest after the government sector, had been preparing to face the Covid-19 coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) challenge as experts warned of a deteriorating situation.
Catholic officials are busy enhancing hundreds of facilities in the towns and villages of across the country as the virus starts to spread, with 468 positive cases and nine deaths reported as of March 24.
“We are preparing our facilities in our hospitals, particularly aiming to help ordinary people living in the villages,” said Father George Kannanthanam, the national secretary of the Catholic Health Association of India (CHAI), which coordinates the activities of 3,537 institutions including 300 hospitals, five medical colleges, small clinics and dispensaries.
These facilities, mostly in small towns and villages, have more than 50,000 beds at any given time.
“Besides, we also have hundreds of trained doctors, nurses, counsellors and social workers to support us in any emergency,” Father Kannanthanam said.
“We need to be ready for any eventuality in case the epidemic spreads among India’s villages. It will not be possible for the government to manage it alone,” he said.
Until the third week of March, tests for Covid-19 infections were done only in state-owned medical facilities. But as the virus began to spread, the government changed its policy.
Balram Bhargava, director-general of the Indian Council of Medical Research, said 51 private laboratories would be allowed to test for Covid-19 in addition to the 72 government-owned functional laboratories in the country.
“It is a timely move from the government to allow private labs to test the virus. We are prepared and are ready with our facilities. If the government permits, we will also get our labs accredited for this testing,” Father Kannanthanam said.
Epidemic experts say the low number of cases in India and much of South Asia should not make governments complacent as the virus could suddenly enter a “surge stage,” spreading to communities and infecting millions.
Millions of India’s 1.3 billion people live in thousands of congested slums and cities, just as millions live in remote villages where experts say no practical solutions exist to stop the virus at the stage of community spread.
“It is our moral and social responsibility to equip ourselves. Now, we have a few cases at hand, but it is challenging to contain its spread unless people voluntarily take precautionary measures at this stage,” Father Kannanthanam said.
Caritas India is also taking stock of the situation.
“We are keeping watch on developments and are in constant touch with our stakeholders. We will soon chalk out a plan to deal with the situation,” said Father Paul Moonjely, executive director of Caritas India.
The health commission of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India has asked all regional bishops to work out a mechanism to deal with the situation locally.
“We have asked regional bishops to take necessary steps to contain the spread of the diseases locally,” said Father Julius Arakal, secretary of the bishops’ health commission.
“We have also issued an advisory to our hospitals to ensure maximum care. Christian hospitals are keeping half of their staff at home as a precautionary measure to replace those in the field in case of an emergency,” he said.
India saw its first case of Covid-19 in the last week of January. The virus reappeared in the second week of March after three Indians, who returned from Italy, tested positive in the southern state of Kerala.
The country had reported 519 confirmed cases of Covid-19 infection as of March 25 and 10 deaths. Worldwide, 101,003 people have recovered out of 397,047 cases, while 18,100 have died.
