Nevis Island Administration cabinet members on Wednesday (May 5) took their second dose of the Oxford University Astra Zeneca vaccine and are now fully vaccinated for COVID 19.
Ten weeks prior, cabinet members in Nevis received their first dose of the vaccine. Premier of Nevis Hon Mark Brantley encouraged persons to get vaccinated so that the island can return to a place of normalcy.
‘Cabinet members, I am pleased to say that we have gotten the second shot therefore we are fully vaccinated. We encourage our people to go out and get vaccinated so we can get the island reopened and get back to work,” he said.
Brantley noted that because they are fully vaccinated they will be able to travel.
“We will be able to travel and be able to move about and that is what we hope the rest of Nevis will also do,” he said.
On Tuesday the Prime Minister Hon Dr Timothy Harris and the Federal Cabinet received their second dose of the vaccine and are now too fully vaccinated.
The Biden administration will support a proposal to temporarily waive international patent protections for COVID-19 vaccines, a move that’s a major blow to pharmaceutical companies.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in a statement Wednesday that the “extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures.”
The U.S. will begin participating in World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations over the exact language of the waiver, which supporters say would make the details of vaccine production widely available and allow lower-income countries to make doses themselves.
“The Administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for COVID-19 vaccines,” Tai said.
What’s waived: The argument centers on temporarily lifting patent and other intellectual property protections to help expand the production and deployment of vaccines during supply shortages. The aim is to suspend the rules until the end of the pandemic.
The debate has exploded in the U.S., as dire scenes in countries like India contrast with rosy domestic predictions and millions of Americans getting vaccinated daily.
Not a done deal: Any WTO action needs the support of every member. While many lower income countries backed the waiver proposal, it was opposed by others, including the European Union, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Japan, Brazil, Canada and Australia.
Drug industry reacts: The pharmaceutical industry has fought hard against the proposal. Stephen Ubl, president CEO of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), called the move an “unprecedented step that will undermine our global response to the pandemic and compromise safety. This decision will sow confusion between public and private partners, further weaken already strained supply chains and foster the proliferation of counterfeit vaccines.”
Just a few hours earlier, Anthony Fauci expressed some support for the waiver
Anthony Fauci said Wednesday that a waiver for COVID-19 patent protections should not be off the table, while also pointing to other possible options to increase access to vaccines in lower-income countries.
“I think it’s certainly an option that we should not take off the table,” Fauci, the government’s top infectious diseases expert, told The Hill’s Steve Clemons.
Basically, Fauci said he supported any move that would increase global vaccine access.
“By whatever mechanism it takes,” Fauci said. “Whether that involves taking a look and examining whether you want to waive patent protection, whether it means making investments in a lot of money to have tech transfer go to the developing world so they can make their own vaccines.”
COVID-19 vaccine brings in billions for Pfizer in first quarter
Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine earned the company $3.5 billion in the first three months of this year, representing nearly a quarter of its total revenue, the company announced ahead of its earnings call.
The drug giant said it expects the vaccine to earn about $26 billion in total revenue for 2021, based on signed contracts as of mid-April that call for 1.6 billion doses of the shot to be delivered this year.
The company’s previous forecast was $15 billion for the year, but its first-quarter 2021 revenues alone totaled $14.6 billion, an increase of $4.5 billion, or 45 percent, compared to the first quarter of 2020.
Price gouging concerns: Unlike several other rival companies that developed COVID-19 vaccines, Pfizer did not use federal funds and said it planned to make a profit. Democratic lawmakers and drug pricing advocates have raised concerns about Pfizer’s decision, arguing it could lead to price gouging after the initial pandemic period.
Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca both decided to sell their vaccines on a nonprofit basis during the pandemic. Moderna developed its vaccine with significant help from the federal government, but with no other products on the market decided to sell its vaccine at a profit.
What’s next: The FDA is getting ready to issue an emergency use authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for those aged 12 to 15, The New York Times reported on Monday. Pfizer also said Tuesday that it expects to apply for emergency authorization for the shot to be given to those aged 2 to 11 in September.
The two companies are also planning to seek approval from the FDA later this month for the vaccine to be used for those 16 to 85 after the public health emergency is declared over.
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Tweaked Moderna vaccine ‘neutralises Covid variants in trials’
Limited data from small test trial shows positive results against South Africa and Brazil strains
A health worker prepares a dose of Moderna Covid-19 vaccine. The trial results have yet to be peer-reviewed. Photograph: Virginia Mayo/AP
The first “tweaked” vaccine against the worrying coronavirus variants that emerged in South Africa and Brazil has successfully neutralised them in laboratory trials, the US company Moderna has said.
The results of the small trial suggest that boosters against the variants will be feasible and could be rolled out this year to counter the threat from variants that have appeared around the world and are feared in some cases to be more transmissible or partially vaccine-resistant.
Leading companies have been racing to produce adapted versions of their Covid vaccines. Pfizer/BioNTech, which has a similar mRNA vaccine to Moderna’s, and Oxford/AstraZeneca are also in the process of developing tweaked vaccines against the South African variant, B1351, and the Brazilian variant, P1, which appear to be the major threat to current immunisation programmes.
Moderna became the first to announce results on Wednesday night. They appear to be very positive, although only basic information from an initial analysis of results is available so far.
The US company has tested both a booster shot of its standard Covid vaccine and also a tweaked version of the vaccine in people who have previously had the full double dose. Twenty adults were recruited for each arm of the trial, or 40 in total.
Two weeks after the new jab, Moderna says both the booster shot and the tweaked vaccine increased the antibodies in the blood that can neutralise the two variants of concern.
But the tweaked vaccine – called mRNA-1273.351 and designed specifically to combat the South African and Brazilian variants, which have similar mutations to the spike protein – produced higher levels of neutralising antibodies than the standard booster shot, mRNA-1273.
Moderna says it is also running a trial in which people are given a mixture of the booster and the vaccine specifically designed against the variant. It has submitted the early results as a paper to a pre-print server, it said in a statement. Once the combined trial is complete, it will produce a paper that will be published with peer review.
“As we seek to defeat the ongoing pandemic, we remain committed to being proactive as the virus evolves. We are encouraged by these new data, which reinforce our confidence that our booster strategy should be protective against these newly detected variants,” said Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna.
“Our mRNA platform allows for rapid design of vaccine candidates that incorporate key virus mutations, potentially allowing for faster development of future alternative variant-matched vaccines should they be needed … We will continue to make as many updates to our Covid-19 vaccine as necessary to control the pandemic.”
The vaccines have not been trialled in the field; these are blood samples analysed in the lab. But the regulatory authorities have said they would not need to go through the rigorous large-scale trials that were necessary for the original vaccines to obtain emergency approval.
The company said there were few side-effects from the vaccines and those that were reported were mild. Apart from pain at the injection site, the most common reported side-effects were fatigue, headache, muscle pain and joint pain.
Kathmandu, Nepal (CNN) In Nepal, a situation is unfolding that looks chillingly familiar.
Covid-19 cases are skyrocketing, hospitals are overwhelmed, and the country’s Prime Minister is pleading for help from other nations.
Nepal is now reporting about 20 daily Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people — about the same number as India was reporting two weeks ago.
Nepali devotees observing the first day of the Biska or Bisket Jatra at Taumadi, Bhaktapur, Nepal on April 10, 2021. maharjan 2021
Last weekend, 44% of Nepal’s Covid tests came back positive, according to government figures quoted by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), as it warned of an impending crisis.
“What is happening in India right now is a horrifying preview of Nepal’s future if we cannot contain this latest Covid surge that is claiming more lives by the minute,” Nepal’s Red Cross chairperson, Dr. Netra Prasad Timsina, said in a statement.
Nepal has a fragile health system, with fewer doctors per capita than India, and a lower vaccination rate than its neighbor. The country’s high test positivity rate suggests it isn’t catching nearly enough cases.
Mass public events, including festivals, political gatherings and weddings, have allowed cases to spread, along with general public complacency and slow government action.
“The situations are worsening day by day and it may go out of control in future,” Dr Samir Adhikari, a spokesperson for Nepal’s Ministry of Health and Population, said Monday.
Although Nepal has tightened borders and imposed lockdowns in its worst-hit regions — including the capital — some fear that won’t be enough to contain the virus as it spreads through the capital, and even as far as Everest Base CampShops closed during the first day of lockdown in Kathmandu, Nepal, April 29, 2021.
A porous border
Only a month ago this Himalayan nation of 31 million people was reporting about 100 cases a day. Now, it’s more than 8,600.
Some have blamed that on India’s raging second wave spilling over into Nepal, which shares long, open land border with its neighbor.
Nepalis don’t need to show their passport or ID card to enter their country, and many Nepali people have businesses in India, and vice versa, meaning cross-border traffic is high. In recent weeks, some Indians have fled their country’s second wave, hoping to access health care in Nepal or escape to a third country, Adhikari said.
“It’s very hard to stop all the mobility between the two countries,” he added.
In recent days, Nepal tightened those rules. Nepali citizens can now only cross from India at 13 out of 35 border points, according to Nepal’s Foreign Minister, Pradeep Kumar Gyawali.
But returnees need to be tested at the border, according to Shankar Bahadur Bista, assistant chief district officer of Banke district, which borders India.
Anyone who test negative can go home — but positive cases must enter a quarantine facility or hospital, he added.
However, Dr Sameer Mani Dixit, a Nepal-based public health research scientist, says those measures came too late — the virus was already spreading within the country.
Large-scale gatherings
Nepal’s crisis began building in early April, as the country’s Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli touted yet another unproven coronavirus remedy.
Oli said the illness could be treated by gargling with guava leaves, adding to his ridiculed comments last year that Nepalis had stronger immune systems due to their daily intake of spices.
As April progressed, Nepalis gathered for religious festivals at home and across the border in India, where Nepali devotees joined Hindus who bathed in the Ganges for Kumbh Mela, one of the world’s biggest religious gatherings.
They included Nepal’s former King Gyanendra Shah and Queen Komal Shah, who were admitted to hospital with Covid-19 on their return to Nepal, according to a statement from Norvic International Hospital in Kathmandu.
Around the same time, thousands of Nepalis gathered in the capital to celebrate the major religious festival Pahan Charhe. Others came together in Bhaktapur, a nearby city to celebrate Bisket Jatra, despite authorities ordering them not to, according to local media. One placard in support of the event read: “Our festival is dearer than our lives to us.”
At Least One Person Climbing Mt. Everest Has Tested Positive
BBC- Norwegian climber Erlend Ness was isolated in hospital for eight nights due to the virus, he told the BBC.
Reports say a sherpa in his party had also tested positive for the virus.
The outbreak is a blow to Nepal, which relies heavily on income generated from Everest expeditions.
Mr Ness is unsure where he could have caught the virus, but raised the possibility of catching it whilst in one of the tea houses along the Khumbu Valley.
He added that he could have “done more” to protect himself, such as being more diligent with handwashing, and wearing a mask all day.
“Not many people used masks on the trek,” recalled Mr Ness, who had been feeling sick for about six days in the mountains before being evacuated on April 15 by helicopter.
He was taken to two different hospitals in the Nepali capital Kathmandu, and tested positive for the virus three times.
He has since recovered – testing negative on April 22 – and is now staying with friends in the city.
Hundreds of foreign climbers are expected to attempt the ascent this spring season, which began in April, after the slopes were shut off due to the pandemic.
Aside from wider tourism revenue, Nepal earns $4m (£3.1m) by issuing Everest climbing permits every year, according to the Kathmandu Post.
All travellers entering Nepal must present a negative Covid report, taken within 72 hours of their first flight, according to Nepal’s Department of Immigration.
Passengers from counties with new Covid variants will be subject to an additional 10 days of hotel quarantine. If a test comes back negative after five days, they will be allowed to spend their remaining five days in home quarantine.
Six goals were scored on Sunday in the SKNFA Premier League but both matches ended in draws. Despite taking an early lead, Fast Cash Saddlers had to settle for a 2-2 draw versus St. Peters F.C. The young Shaheem Prentice of St. Peters, buoyed by his debut goal last week against Bath United, scored both goals for St. Peters in the 26th and 42nd minutes, giving his team a 2-1 lead going into half time.
Stephan Rawlins got the goalscoring off for Saddlers in the 4th minute. But it was freekick expert Evansroy Barnes who ensured that Saddlers, that were previously on a four-game losing streak, would walk away with something from this match. Barnes scored a stunning freekick from yards out, beating the wall and the keeper into the back of the net.
The weekend’s marquee matchup between former champions Rams Village Superstars and title contenders Garden Hotspurs ended in a 1-1 draw. Kimaree Rogers gave Village the lead in the 37th minute, but Shervin Allen, left unmarked in the 18-yard box, restored parity in the 72nd minute. Once again, Village was forced to finish the match with 10 men after Mazari Hodge was sent off for picking up two yellow cards in the 29th and 80th minute. In Village’s last match, Joseph Wilkes earned a red card even before a ball was kicked in the second half after he picked up in his second yellow card. Village lost that match 1-0 to S-Krave Newtown United and Sunday’s result meant the former champions have gone two games without a win.
Trafalgar Southstars registered their first win of the season with a dramatic 4-2 victory over TGE Dieppe Bay Eagles on Saturday in the SKNFA Premier League at the Warner Park Football Stadium. Ronaldo Nisbett got Southstars off the mark with a stunning turnaround strike in the 15th minute to send his team into halftime with a slender lead. The second half was a complete turnaround for Dieppe Bay and for a moment it seems they were on course to winning the match. Shawn Dasent equalized for Dieppe Bay in the 48th minute and Georgel Dickenson doubled the lead in the 63rd minute.
Southstars however seemed to have found a new gear after that goal and five minutes later Shomari Hanley found the equalizer for his team. Nisbett found the back of the net again in the 80th minute and Dylon Morton with a brilliant solo effort shrugged off two defenders and slot one past the Dieppe Bay goalkeeper to seal the 4-2 win. This was a welcome result for Southstars after getting their first point of the season with a midweek goalless draw versus Saddlers. The SKNFA Premier League Live commentary team provided analysis of the match. “Good week for Southstars. Getting their first point and now getting their first victory,” said commentator Esington Watts in the Premier League Postgame Show “It was an enjoyable game…normally bottom of the table clash you might find it one sided…it seems more competitive at the bottom of the table than at the top.”
In the second of Saturday night’s double header,
SOL ISLAND AUTO CONAREE 1 – 1 S – KRAVE NEWTOWN UTD
With some high profile matches in this past weekend’s SKNFA premier league ending in draws, three teams enjoyed victories. Two of those teams won on Friday night when MFCR United Old Road Jets defeated Hotsprings Bath United 2-0 and S.L. Horsfords St. Paul’s United dismissed Flow 4G Cayon Rockets 3-0. Tiquanny Williams scored both goals for Old Road, who are now back to winning ways after suffering a losing streak and a draw in their last few matches. Williams scored in the 85th and 90th minute. It was a credit to Bath who held their opponents scoreless for 85 minutes, had it not been for two blunders that cost them the match.
All the SKNFA Premier League matches were streamed live on the SKNFA Facebook page. In the post-match analysis, Loshaun Dixon and Essington Watts spoke about Old Road returning to winning ways and Bath United playing good football despite the loss. “It’s a heartbreaking moment for the Nevisian team,” Watts said. “They held out for 85 minutes and just some blunders and a goal scorer like Tiquanny Williams with great finishing instinct was able to capitalize on the mistakes,” he added.
In Friday night’s second match, defending champions S.L. Horsfords St. Paul’s United proved why they are favorites to repeat this season after they dispatched title contenders Flow 4G Cayon Rockets. This is the second time in a week that St. Paul’s defeated the team that was ranked second in the table, after defeating Spurs that was ranked second last week. Jovaughn Leader got the goalscoring off in the 38th minute followed by Vinceroy Nelson 10 minutes later with a stunning free-kick yards out. Nelson, a former Cayon player celebrated his goal in front the Cayon bench as if to send a message to his old side. Anthony Caines, who came off the bench in the dying moments of the game scored in the 5th minute of stoppage time.
Assistant coach of Cayon Jazza Buchanan said they played well in the first half to limit St. Paul’s chances and capitalize on their weakness. However, they gave St. Paul’s chances to score from set pieces which plays into their hands. “We can’t afford to give them anything in those areas because they are very good at set pieces,” Buchanan said.
For St. Paul’s, their manager Derionne Edmeade said Cayon bossed them around in the first half and they had to make changes in the second half, despite leading 1-0. “We went into the second half and make the adjustments. We realized that we had to match Cayon’s energy based on how they were playing in the first half, he said. “We really had to look at what they were really doing and figure out what we were not doing properly and after making the adjustments I think we came out second half with St. Paul’s playing St. Paul’s football,” he explained.
A Malian woman has given birth to nine babies in an extremely rare case that has fascinated the West African nation’s leaders.
Halima Cisse gave birth on Tuesday to four boys and five girls after the Malian government flew her to Morocco for specialist health care.
In a statement, Mali’s health minister Fanta Siby said that the 25-year-old and all the children “are all doing well”.
The minister added that she was being kept informed by a Malian doctor who accompanied Ms Cisse to Morocco and that they due to return home in several weeks’ time.
Doctors originally detected only seven babies inside Ms Cisse’s womb during the ultrasound. But when the Moroccan doctors performed a caesarean section they were shocked to find two more babies.
Originally only seven babies were detected during the ultrasound, but Moroccan doctors found two more when performing a caesarean section
Strangely, Morocco’s health ministry said they had no knowledge of such a multiple birth taking place in one of the country’s hospitals.
Mali’s ministry of health said in a statement that Ms Cisse had stayed at a hospital in the capital Bamako for two weeks before being sent to Morocco for treatment by the president of the transitional government.
Cases of women successfully carrying septuplets to term are rare. Nonuplets are even rarer. Medical complications in such multiple births often mean that some of the babies do not make it.
The first recorded case of nonuplets was in Australia in the 1970s. None of the babies survived. Then in 1999, a woman in Malaysia gave birth to nine children. Sadly, none of them survived more than six hours.
THE ISLAND of St. Kitts and Nevis has pledged financial and humanitarian support of up to $1 million for St. Vincent and the Grenadines following a volcanic eruption.
Prime Minister the Hon. Dr. Timothy Harris made the announcement in the aftermath of a series of eruptions of the ‘La Soufriere’ volcano in the north-eastern part of St. Vincent.Support is expected to include providing accommodation for evacuees and resettling citizens and residents from the danger zone around the volcano.
Prime Minister Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris.
They plan to also provide human resources through the Regional Security System (RSS) recruited from the Defence and Police Forces to support humanitarian activities, provide technical support and keep peace efforts on the ground.
The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) have also released of a sum of $20,000 for its Special Emergency Assistance Fund.
Other Caribbean islands including Antigua, Grenada, and St Lucia have also pledged their support by opening up their doors to those evacuating.
More than 100 people have been taken to St Lucia so far already and the Royal Caribbean and other cruise ship companies have also been helping evict residents.
In a statement, the St Kitts and Nevis government said: “The Government and people of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis stand in solidarity with the Government and people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines during this very difficult time brought about by the volcanic eruption in that Country. St. Kitts and Nevis has always stood in strong support of our OECS Member States in their time of difficulty and need.
“Our prayers are with the Government and people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines at this most challenging time.”
Ten weeks after taking his first dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, Prime Minister Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris today (May 04) visited the Sylvia Garnette Primary Health Care Facility in his hometown of Tabernacle where he was administered his second vaccine shot and will be deemed fully vaccinated in two weeks time.
PrimeMinister Harris was one of about 70 persons to take the vaccine when the Government rolled out its mass vaccination programme on February 22.
Aftertaking his second jab, the honourable prime minister used the opportunity to encourage citizens and residents of St. Kitts and Nevis, who have not yet done so, to take the free COVID-19 vaccine at the earliest possible time to help the country attain its goal of reaching herd immunity.
“As part of the life saving strategy, the critical component in that battle was the vaccines and that the health advice was that every country should try to achieve at least 70 percent of the population being vaccinated. It is a tall order but a necessary order which we must achieve if we are to put our countries and our societies back to work,” Prime Minister Harris said.
Joiningthe prime minister today at the Sylvia Garnette Primary Health Care Facility in taking their second vaccine jab were Attorney General, the Honourable Vincent Byron; Commissioner of Police, Mr. Hilroy Brandy and Commander of the St. Kitts and Nevis Defence Force, Lieutenant Colonel J. Anthony Comrie.
Anumber of persons also seized the opportunity to take their first shot of the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
At other centers in St. Kitts, other members of the Cabinet including Minister of Health, the Honourable Akilah Byron-Nisbett took their second vaccine shot as well. A significant number of medical practitioners also were administered their second dose along with senior government officials.
Tothose who are still hesitant in taking the vaccine, Prime Minister Harris reminded them that COVID-19 is still very much a deadly disease that continues to wreak havoc around the world.
Hesaid, “COVID-19 is a dangerous virus. It has killed and will continue to kill. It has turned almost every country it has visited upside down. Today as we speak, Trinidad and Tobago is under lockdown. Today as we speak, in parts of Jamaica the situation is still dangerously bad. Today as we speak, within the Caribbean region hundreds of persons have lost their lives.”
Atthe end of day on Saturday, May 01, a total of 12,857 persons had taken their first shot of the vaccine, representing 38.9 percent of the Government’s target population.
OnApril 27, 2021, Prime Minister Harris announced several changes to the country’s COVID-19 protocols that will benefit persons who are fully vaccinated, that is, persons who have taken two doses of a 2-dose regimen vaccine.
Amongthe changes is the reduction in the quarantine period for fully vaccinated inbound air travelers to St. Kitts and Nevis from 14 days to 9 days effective May 01. Moreover, effective May 20, fully vaccinated spectators can access venues of amateur and recreational sporting events such as football and basketball matches and athletic meets.
BBC- On Monday, a senior official from India’s federal government told journalists that there was no shortage of oxygen in Delhi or anywhere else in the country.
As he spoke, several small hospitals – only a few miles from where he stood in the capital – were sending out desperate messages about them running out of oxygen, putting patients’ lives at risk.
The chief doctor of one of the hospitals – a specialist paediatric facility – told the BBC that “our hearts were in our mouths” because of the risk of children dying. They got supplies just in time, after a local politician intervened.
And yet, the federal government has repeatedly insisted that there was no shortage. “We are only facing problems in its transportation,” Piyush Goyal, a senior official from India’s home ministry, said.
He also advised hospitals to “ensure judicious use of oxygen as per the guidelines”. Several doctors who have spoken to the BBC say they are giving oxygen only to patients who need it, but there is not enough.
But experts say that the shortage of oxygen is just one of the problems which shows both federal and state governments were not prepared, having failed to do enough to stop or minimise the damage of the second wave.
image copyrightGetty Images
image captionA street in Delhi in early March, when, despite warnings, India’s health minister said the country was in the “endgame” of Covid-19
Warnings have in fact been repeatedly issued, including:
In January and February, the national number of daily cases fell to under 20,000 from peaks of around 90,000 in September last year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared Covid beaten, and all places of public gathering opened.
And soon, people were not adhering to Covid safety protocols, thanks in part to confused messaging from the top.
While Mr Modi asked people to wear masks and follow social distancing in his public messages, he addressed large unmasked crowds during his election campaigns in five states. A number of his ministers were also seen addressing large public gatherings without wearing masks. The Kumbh Mela, a Hindu festival – which attracts millions – was also allowed to go ahead.
image copyrightReuters
image captionThe Kumbh Mela religious festival in mid-April, which, like political rallies at the time, were attended unmasked
“There was complete disconnect between what they practised and what they preached,” says public policy and health systems expert Dr Chandrakant Lahariya.
Prominent virologist Dr Shahid Jameel says “the government just did not see the second wave coming and started celebrating too early”.
But there is more to the story: the devastation has also exposed the underfunding and neglect of the public healthcare system in India.
The heart-breaking scenes that have been witnessed outside hospitals – people dying without getting treatment – shows the grim reality of India’s healthcare infrastructure.
As one expert puts it, India’s “public health infrastructure was always broken, the rich and the middle class are just finding out”. Those who could afford it have always relied on private hospitals for treatment, while the poor struggle to get even a doctor’s appointment.
Recent schemes, like health insurance and subsidised medicines for the poor, are not helping because very little has been done in decades to increase the number of medical staff or hospitals.
India’s healthcare spending, including both private and public, has been around 3.6% of GDP for the past six years, the lowest percentage in the five Brics countries: Brazil spent the most at 9.2%, followed by South Africa at 8.1%, Russia at 5.3% and China at 5% in 2018.
Developed nations spend a far higher proportion of their GDP on health. In 2018, for instance, spending in the US was 16.9% and Germany 11.2%. Even smaller nations like Sri Lanka (3.76%) and Thailand (3.79%) spend more than India.
And India has fewer than 10 doctors per 10,000 people, and in some states the figure is less than five.
Preparation
Several “empowered committees” were last year looking at the preparations needed to tackle the next coronavirus wave, so experts are baffled by the shortages of oxygen, beds and drugs.
“When the first wave was tapering, that’s when they should have prepared for a second wave and assumed the worst. They should have taken an inventory of oxygen and [the drug] remdesivir and then ramped up manufacturing capacity,” Mahesh Zagade, former health secretary of Maharashtra state, told the BBC.
Officials say India produces enough oxygen to meet the spike in demand but transportation was the problem. Experts say this should have been fixed much earlier.
The government is now running special trains carrying oxygen from one state to another and stopping use of oxygen in industries – but only after many patients died because of a lack of oxygen.
image copyrightGetty Images
image captionVery ill patients have been stuck outside hospitals as they wait for beds to become available
“The outcome has been that desperate family members are spending thousands of rupees to secure an oxygen cylinder on the black market and then stand for hours in a queue to get it filled,” points out Dr Lahariya.
An executive from a pharmaceutical company which manufactures remdesivir said “demand had dried up” in January and February. “If the government had placed an order, we would have stockpiled and there wouldn’t have been any shortage. We have ramped up production but demand has grown significantly,” he said.
In contrast, the southern state of Kerala planned for the surge in advance. Dr A Fathahudeen, who is part of the state’s Covid taskforce, says there was no shortage of oxygen in the state as necessary steps were taken in October last year.
image copyrightGetty Images
image captionRelatives of patients have been refilling oxygen cylinders themselves
“We also procured sufficient stock of remdesivir and tocilizumab and other drugs well in advance. We also have a surge plan in place to tackle any exponential rise in the numbers in the coming weeks,” he says.
Mr Zagade says other states should have also taken similar steps “to avoid the suffering”.
“Learning means someone else has done it and you can do it now, but that means it will take time,” the former health secretary for Maharashtra said.
But time is running out as the second wave is now spreading to villages where healthcare systems are not equipped to deal with the surge.
Prevention
Genome sequencing of the virus is an important step in identifying new variants that could be more infectious and deadly. The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Consortia (INSACOG) was set up last year and it brought together 10 labs in the country.
India is sequencing just over 1% of all samples at the moment. “In comparison, the UK was sequencing at 5-6% at the peak of the pandemic. But you can’t build such capacity overnight,” he said.
However, India’s main hope was always vaccination.
image copyrightGetty Images
image captionThis woman wanted to record the moment of vaccination
“Any public health specialist will tell you there is no practical way to strengthen an already broken public healthcare system in a matter of months,” one woman, whose family runs a large private hospital in Delhi, told the BBC.
“The best and most effective alternative to battle Covid was to vaccinate the population as quickly as possible so the majority wouldn’t need hospital care and hence not overburden the healthcare system.”
India initially wanted 300 million people vaccinated by July, “but it seems the government did not do enough planning to secure vaccine supply to run the programme”, Dr Lahariya says.
“On top of it, it has opened the vaccination for all adults without securing vaccine supplies.”
So far, only about 26 million people have been fully vaccinated out of a population of 1.4 billion, and about 124 million have received a single dose. India has millions more doses on order, but still far short of what it actually needs.
The federal government needs 615 million doses to vaccinate everyone above the age of 45 – about 440 million people. There are 622 million people between the age of 18 and 44, and 1.2 billion doses are required to vaccinate them.
The government has also cancelled exports, reneging on international commitments.
The government has enlisted other firms like Biological E and the state-run Haffkine Institute to produce vaccines. It has also given credit support of $609m to the Serum Institute of India, which produces the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab which is being made in India as Covishield, to ramp up production.
But that funding should have come earlier, Dr Lahariya says, saving precious lives. “It will take months before we have enough vaccines to speed up the programme. In the meantime, millions will continue to be at risk of getting Covid,” he adds.
Experts say it is ironic that India is known as the world’s pharmacy and it is now facing shortages of vaccines and drugs.
All of this, Dr Lahariya says, should serve as wake-up call for for both federal and state governments, which should invest drastically more in the healthcare sector because “this definitely is not the last pandemic we will have to fight against”.
“The future pandemic may come earlier than any model can predict,” he says.
