ACCESS Health India’s Covid-19 Learning Diary Documents Lessons from the Government’s Response to Novel Coronavirus

ACCESS Health India has developed a Covid-19 learning diary that records India’s response to the novel coronavirus disease. The idea behind the diary is to track the legislative, judicial, and social response to the pandemic at a country level. In the COVID-19 learning diary, we attempt to document the efforts of the Indian Governments both central and states to curb the spread of COVID-19. This will allow for a reflection of where the government went wrong and help prevent the same mistakes in the future. Indian public’s social response to COVID – 19 has been varying from collectivism and social integration to an extreme indifference toward the political measures. We document the journey of the first 4 months from a political, clinical, judicial, and financial point of view.

India’s faced a challenge of a large population, hurt by urban sprawl and many other respiratory diseases, making it even more vulnerable to a virus such as COVID-19. However, despite its unfavorable conditions, India had been rather effective in containing the disease in the earlier part of the year. Innovation, local participation, and the non-governmental response had a significant role to play in containing the spread as well as ensuring the availability of supplies. This document explores the response of the country in a chronological fashion to be used as a learning experience for both India and other countries.

We discuss some of the successful models within the country, the efforts of Ministry of Home Affairs, the measures taken to deal the economic setbacks, the role of ground forces, IT, private sector, municipal corporations and above all the clinical workforce which worked tirelessly. We also highlight the role of the administrative services in leading the efforts.

To read the full learning diary click here.