Assessing the aftermath
India is currently reporting around 40,000 cases and 500 deaths a day. Of the total dedicated COVID-19 hospital beds in the capital, New Delhi, only 2% are currently occupied. Business activity has returned to pre-pandemic levels, even though the numbers of cases and deaths are still much higher than they were after the first wave.
Following the second wave, a very high number of Indian people have COVID-19 antibodies. In recent surveys conducted by health authorities, two-thirds of India’s population have been found to have them. Considering less than 30% of Indians had received at least one vaccine dose when the surveys were conducted, this clearly highlights how widely the virus spread during the second wave.
With the virus having overwhelmed the country’s already struggling healthcare system, India is now trying to identify and fill the gaps that became visible during the second wave.
Alongside tighter border controls to prevent cases being imported, the country has invested in promoting COVID-appropriate behaviour among the public, has hired more health workers, and has set up medical oxygen plants to improve supply in future outbreaks. Medical oxygen ran out during the second wave.
On top of this, additional critical care infrastructure has been reserved for children, as dedicated facilities for them were shifted to adult COVID-19 patient care in the last two surges. Medicines have been stockpiled for opportunistic infections that can accompany COVID-19, such as mucormycosis. And India is also strengthening its network for tracking potentially dangerous new variants of the virus, with experts noting that this needs to be improved.
And with low vaccine coverage having allowed the virus to spread, there have also been efforts to strengthen India’s COVID-19 vaccination programme. Exports of domestically produced doses were halted in the spring to bolster India’s own vaccine supply, and the procurement of vaccines has been handed over from state governments to the federal government.