The peak of COVID-19 cases will arrive in India by mid-November and the country will face shortage of hospital beds and ventilators, said findings of a new study.
Conducted by researchers from an Operations Research Group constituted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) sad the lockdown imposed by the government on March 25 delayed the peak of the pandemic by an estimated 34 to 76 days.
The lockdown also helped bring down the number of infections by 69 percent to 97 percent, thereby allowing time for the healthcare system to shore up resources and infrastructure, according to the research findings.
The researchers said the management of COVID-19 will involve a dynamic review of policies and significant strengthening of the healthcare system.
The study findings said, "While lockdowns will delay the onset of peak and will give the much-needed time for the health system to respond, strengthening the health system response in terms of testing, isolation of cases, treatment and contact tracing, as is being done currently, will have to be the mainstay to reduce the impact of the pandemic in India until vaccine becomes available."
The Indian government said coronavirus-related health infrastructure in the country has been strengthened with the availability of 958 dedicated COVID-19 hospitals with 167,883 isolation beds, 21,614 ICU and 73,469 oxygen supported beds.
Also, 2,313 dedicated COVID Health Centres with 133,037 isolation beds, 10,748 ICU beds and 46,635 oxygen supported beds have also been operationalized. Moreover, 7,525 COVID Care Centres with 710,642 beds are now available to combat COVID-19 in the country, added the study report.
