Bracing for a Rural Surge

Public health experts recommend decentralised intervention at the panchayat level to tackle a possible sharp spike in cases

- Sonali Acharjee

The looming threat of a Covid surge in rural India was not unforeseen. As early as in June, WHO (World Health Organization) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan had flagged the possibility and advised that India use the time the virus takes to reach the hinterland to ramp up its primary healthcare system. As of July 16, the pandemic had spread to 98 per cent of all districts in the country; only 13 of 640 had reported no cases. Many health experts believe the return of millions of migrant workers in June played its part. “With so many people being asymptomatic carriers of Covid, one will never know for certain the extent to which migrants carried the virus back with them. Many states did not test every returnee; they only isolated them or did symptom testing, which has been proven to be an ineffective way of diagnosing Covid. All it takes is a single [infected] person,” says Indian Medical Association chairman Dr K.K. Aggarwal. With prevention looking like a bit of a lost cause, policy guidelines are now focusing on cure and managing fatalities.