COVID-19 is no more a public health emergency of international concern

GS Paper 2

 Syllabus: Issues Relating to Development and Management of Social Sector/Services Relating to Health

 

Source: TH

Context: The World Health Organization (WHO) declared that COVID-19 was no longer a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC).

 

When was it declared PHEIC?

COVID-19 was announced as a ‘PHEIC’ by the WHO on January 30, 2020.

 

What is the current status of COVID-19?

It has acquired the status of other endemic diseases (from the pandemic). India reached the COVID-19 endemic stage a year ago.

Trends during COVID-19 spread in India:

• ‘COVID deniers’ at the beginning of the pandemic: Resulted in the spiking of the COVID-19 cases in India.
• Misinformation during the 2nd wave: A third wave in India would affect children resulting in the deprivation of schooling and learning of children.
• Policy interventions missed factoring in the local context: Local context determines the epidemiological pattern, spread of disease and proposed interventions.

 

Lessons from COVID Pandemic that India must embrace and implement:

• Invest in healthcare (HC) infrastructure.
• India needs National HC Services Regulatory Authority: To check rampant black marketing of critical drugs, artificial shortage and discrepancies in the cost of the same.
• India needs more doctors, paramedics and hospitals.
• Revamp Primary health centres with the PPP model.
• Bring the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) under PMO to enhance proficiency in predicting future pandemics.
• Better pay and training of ASHA workers: They played a critical role in creating awareness in rural India – allaying fake apprehensions regarding vaccines.
• Fight disinformation in mission mode.
• A strategic reserve of critical medicines.

 

Steps taken by India towards Covid-19 prevention:

• Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Surveillance Consortium (INSACOG) for genomic sequencing and tracking the evolution of variant strains of SARS-CoV-2.
• The National Biopharma Mission (NBM) and the Ind-CEPI Mission have enabled the strengthening of the national vaccine development ecosystem.
• Mission COVID Suraksha was launched as part of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat 3.0 for promoting the R&D of Indian COVID-19 vaccines.

 

Some best practices in India:

• “Har Ghar Dastak” campaign: Aims at awareness, mobilisation and vaccination of all eligible beneficiaries.
• Training of healthcare professionals: The Government of India has utilised the iGOT (Integrated Government Online Training) platform to train various personnel.

 

Way ahead:

• COVID-19 has ‘officially’ transitioned from a population-level challenge to more of an individual health concern.
• The government should offer formal training courses in epidemiology to prepare India for future outbreaks and epidemics and to curb misinformation.
• Integrate the COVID-19 response to general health services. There is no role for universal measures against COVID-19 to be enforced.
• It is time to drop the COVID-19 fixation and move on to tackle other more pressing health challenges in the country.

 

Insta Links:

With COVID-19 ‘over’, applying the lessons learnt

 

Mains Links:

Critically examine the role of WHO in providing global health security during the COVID-19 Pandemic. (UPSC 2020)

 

Prelims Links: (UPSC 2022)