Experts say a large part of the expenditure in April was spent on heads such as creating infrastructure for testing capacity and procuring testing kits, among other things.
Most feel as the movement of people normalises, the in-patient volumes in hospitals will grow and by the end of May, occupancy should be around 50 per cent, and 75 per cent over a period of time.
As the number of COVID cases rise in Bihar, data indicates that the state is slowing down on testing. It is also relying more on the Rapid Antigen Test than the more accurate RT-PCR test.
Two kinds of diagnostic tests are being currently used in India -- RT-PCR test and rapid antibodies test -- as per the global health norms.
'We are going to be overwhelmed by the need for hospital beds. There are simply not enough beds in government hospitals.' 'We will need a large number of medical professionals and without the private sector's involvement, the government won't be able to expand capacity.'
Shooting is underway for Amitabh Bachchan's Goodbye, Shah Rukh Khan's Pathan, Salman Khan's Tiger 3 and Prabhas and Saif Ali Khan's Adipurush among other films.
Bharat Biotech, Serum Institute, Zydus Cadila, Panacea Biotec, Indian Immunologicals, Mynvax and Biological E are among the domestic pharma firms working on the coronavirus vaccines in India.
These dedicated COVID-19 facilities will have a capacity of 1,06,719 isolation beds and 12,024 ICU beds reserved for such patients in the country.
Pulling up the Delhi government, a bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad asked why it waited till the court intervened to take steps such as reducing the number of people attending weddings to 50 to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
'The only way to contain this is to see that a lesser number of people are affected.'
It took 110 days for the COVID-19 cases in the country to reach one lakh and just 59 days more to go past the nine-lakh mark.
'What the northern Indian states lack is responsive politics based on the principles of development, social justice and equality.' 'A cut-and-paste job cannot make up for such lethal deficiency,' observes says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The experts agreed that the lockdown has helped in slowing down spread of the virus but insisted that the situation has not reached a plateau and that there was an urgent need to upgrade healthcare facilities to deal with the crisis.
'This health emergency has brought a lot of people together with the common purpose of getting Feluda to play detective as quickly as possible.' 'As a scientist, if we can make a small difference in people's lives, we are happy'
'The more people get tested, the more people will come under isolation. So the spread will get limited with testing.'
Experts also feel that north Indians could be succumbing to the vector-borne disease because of their "low immunity" to it.
The spending on a typical RT-PCR test would take up 23 per cent of the monthly income of an average Indian, compared to 2 per cent in China. This is one of the deepest cuts in the pocket of an individual, in comparison to 14 other countries, reports Abhishek Waghmare.
"We have received complaint from a state yesterday and so far discussed with three states. Too much variations have been reported in results of rapid test kits and RT-PCR kits. We advise states not to use them for the next two days," ICMR's Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar said.
'A probable positive patient walking into a centre is not an ideal situation.'
'Every disease has traits and we have found out that actually 99 per cent of people who have got COVID-19, should recover.'
'There are only two bottlenecks for universal vaccination.' 'One, is availability of the vaccine.' 'Two, is the logistics for administering the vaccine.'
'It is not the test, but the symptomatic phase in this disease that really matters.'
'This year, we know the virus. Last year we didn't know anything about it.' 'The best part is that for the Indian population there has been some amount of cross protection.'
'India is too large a place to have just 10 labs performing these Covid-19 tests.'
'The situation has improved because oxygen tankers are now coming.' 'Before this it was chaotic.'
'The government had a vaccine from January.' 'The government should have given the vaccine to all population above the age of 45, right from the start.' 'Each state has its own problems, but as far as vaccine coverage in India is concerned, there have been mistakes.'
As the issue becomes increasingly politicised and accusations are traded on national television, the average Delhi resident suffers debilitating blows from viral fevers, writes Manavi Kapur.
'We are already exhausted, but we can't give up.' 'The battle is still on.' 'We will see some respite by December 2021.'
'But to see the effects of that, it will take a week or two more.'
'If you look at the age group of people who died in India, the average age is 35!' 'That's why as a country we should be much more concerned.'
'The genetic thing is not in your control. The virulence is not known.' 'The only thing is if you can avoid it.' 'Once you get COVID-19, none of it is in your control.'
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