Burden of COVID-19 pandemic in India: Perspectives from Health Infrastructure

ABSTRACT

The coronavirus (COVID-19) is spreading rapidly across the country but Indias testing regime is far from the global standards. It is important to identify the states where testing needs expansion and the magnitudes of active COVID cases are higher focusing on current health infrastructure to meet the pandemic. The data on COVID-19 was extracted from the Application Programming Interface. Test positive rate, test per confirmed case, recovery rate, case fatality rate, and percent distribution of active cases were computed. Availability of hospitals, hospital beds, intensive care unit and ventilators per lakh population was also computed by public and private sector. The result revealed that, Maharashtra constitutes more than one-third positive cases in the country. More than a quarter of the active cases in India belonged to the Mumbai district of Maharashtra, followed by the Chennai district (9.4%) and Ahmedabad district (9.1%). Further, about 40 percent of the active cases in India belonged to the 11 districts of Maharashtra. The increased test positive rate in Maharashtra and Gujarat to almost double in last one month is a concern. In order to bring the states and the country in right track, the test positive rate need to be brought down to below 2 percent. The procurement of higher number of high throughput machine, the Cobas 6800 testing machine, is need of the hour. Only few states have adequate health infrastructure. The priority should be the laid on expansion of more laboratories and hospitals, storage of PPE kit, testing kit, and indigenously developed vaccines. HighlightsO_LIMaharashtra is having the highest number of positive cases followed by Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. Maharashtra constitutes more than one-third positive cases in the country, but the test per confirmed cases (8) is much lower than the other states. C_LIO_LIMore than a quarter of the active cases in India belonged to the Mumbai district (26.1%) of Maharashtra, followed by the Chennai district (9.4%) and Ahmedabad district (9.1%). Further, about 40 percent of the active cases in India belonged to the 11 districts of Maharashtra. C_LIO_LIThe test positive rate is higher in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Delhi is a concern. C_LIO_LIThe recovery rate in India increased substantially by 26.5 percent point from 11.9 percent on April 14 to 38.4 percent on May 17, 2020. C_LIO_LIThe case fatality rate of Covid-19 in India declined by 0.2 percent from 3.4 percent on April 14 to 3.2 percent on May 17 in India. C_LIO_LIThe number of Dedicated Covid Hospitals is not sufficient in India. C_LIO_LIThe available ventilators in the country will deficit in near future to cater to a growing number of active Covid-19 patients and the burden of other communicable and non-communicable diseases. C_LIO_LIIndia has only 569 testing laboratories (396 govt. and 173 private) against its 1.35 billion population. The procurement of higher number of high throughput machine, the Cobas 6800 testing machine, is need of the hour. C_LI