Docsity
Docsity
Prepare for your exams
Prepare for your exams

Study with the several resources on Docsity

Earn points to download
Earn points to download

Earn points by helping other students or get them with a premium plan

Guidelines and tips
Guidelines and tips
Sell on Docsity
Sell on Docsity
Docsity AI
Docsity AI
Log inSign up

Prepare for your exams

Study with the several resources on Docsity

Find documents

Prepare for your exams with the study notes shared by other students like you on Docsity

Search for your university

Find the specific documents for your university's exams

Docsity AINEW

Summarize your documents, ask them questions, convert them into quizzes and concept maps

Explore questions

Clear up your doubts by reading the answers to questions asked by your fellow students

Earn points to download

Earn points by helping other students or get them with a premium plan

Share documents
download point icon20 Points

For each uploaded document

Answer questions
download point icon5 Points

For each given answer (max 1 per day)

All the ways to get free points
Get points immediately

Choose a premium plan with all the points you need

Study Opportunities

Choose your next study program

Get in touch with the best universities in the world. Search through thousands of universities and official partners

Community

Ask the community

Ask the community for help and clear up your study doubts

Free resources

Our save-the-student-ebooks!

Download our free guides on studying techniques, anxiety management strategies, and thesis advice from Docsity tutors

COVID-19 Crisis in Bihar: Urgent Action & Effective Management Recommendations, High school final essays of Law

Law

A letter written by harshit anand, an advocate, to the hon'ble minister of the department of health in bihar, raising concerns about the state's preparedness and response to the covid-19 crisis. The letter highlights the surge in cases, low testing rates, inadequate healthcare infrastructure, and the plight of healthcare workers. Anand recommends several steps for effective management of the crisis, including the temporary takeover of private health facilities, clearing past payments of healthcare workers, and ramping up the number of rt pcr tests.

Typology: High school final essays

2020/2021

Uploaded on 09/04/2021

isha-singh-2
isha-singh-2 šŸ‡®šŸ‡³

1 document

1 / 4

Toggle sidebar

This page cannot be seen from the preview

Don't miss anything!

bg1
Harshit Anand
Advocate
Enrolment No: D/8413/2018
Page 1 of 4
Date: 29 July 2020
To
Sri Mangal Pandey
Honā€™ble Minister
Department of Health, Government of Bihar
1st Floor
Vikas Bhawan
Bailey Road
Patna - 800 015.
Re: Invocation of the Bihar Epidemic Diseases, COVID-19 Regulation 2020 to
take certain steps for management of COVID-19 situation in Bihar
Dear Minister
I write to you in relation to the captioned subject. I wish to bring the following to your
notice:
1. With a surge in COVID-19 cases, low testing rates, overworked and underpaid
health workers, Bihar is staring at a complete collapse of its public health
system. As per the latest update released on the twitter handle of Department of
Health, Government of Bihar, the total number of positive cases in Bihar till 4 PM
on 28 July 2020 stand at 43,591. Bihar has been reporting over 1,000 COVID-19
cases every day since 12 July 2020. Further, reports suggest that till the second
week of July, Bihar has recorded an Rt value of 1.31, has a positivity rate of
10.73 per cent and has conducted the lowest number of tests per million in the
country ā€” 2,637.
2. Bihar has only 1 doctor for every 17,685 people in the State. There ought to be at
least 3000 Primary Health Centers (PHCs) in Bihar but at present, there are only
1899 PHCs. As per the World Health Organization, Bihar is one of the four States
of India where there is an acute and worrisome shortage of health workers. More
than 40% of the posts for healthcare workers are still vacant in Bihar.
3. It is now clear as a day that the State of Bihar has not done enough to ramp up
its healthcare infrastructure to deal with the COVID-19 crisis. In the wake of the
COVID-19 crisis, little was done to test and accommodate the over 32 lakh
migrant laborers who returned to the State. Contact tracing procedures,
screening procedures and quarantine facilities have been equally spotty.
Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) have an important role among frontline
workers on the ground, battling the COVID-19 pandemic but they have neither
been given adequate security nor payment for work done in the past. The same is
true for contractual health workers, Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANM) &
Pharmacists.
pf3
pf4

Partial preview of the text

Download COVID-19 Crisis in Bihar: Urgent Action & Effective Management Recommendations and more High school final essays Law in PDF only on Docsity!

Advocate Enrolment No: D/8413/ Date: 29 July 2020 To Sri Mangal Pandey Honā€™ble Minister Department of Health, Government of Bihar 1st Floor Vikas Bhawan Bailey Road Patna - 800 015. Re: Invocation of the Bihar Epidemic Diseases, COVID-19 Regulation 2020 to take certain steps for management of COVID-19 situation in Bihar Dear Minister I write to you in relation to the captioned subject. I wish to bring the following to your notice:

  1. With a surge in COVID-19 cases, low testing rates, overworked and underpaid health workers, Bihar is staring at a complete collapse of its public health system. As per the latest update released on the twitter handle of Department of Health, Government of Bihar, the total number of positive cases in Bihar till 4 PM on 28 July 2020 stand at 43,591. Bihar has been reporting over 1,000 COVID- 19 cases every day since 12 July 2 020. Further, reports suggest that till the second week of July, Bihar has recorded an Rt value of 1.31, has a positivity rate of 10.73 per cent and has conducted the lowest number of tests per million in the country ā€” 2,637.
  2. Bihar has only 1 doctor for every 17,685 people in the State. There ought to be at least 3000 Primary Health Centers (PHCs) in Bihar but at present, there are only 1899 PHCs. As per the World Health Organization, Bihar is one of the four States of India where there is an acute and worrisome shortage of health workers. More than 40% of the posts for healthcare workers are still vacant in Bihar.
  3. It is now clear as a day that the State of Bihar has not done enough to ramp up its healthcare infrastructure to deal with the COVID-19 crisis. In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, little was done to test and accommodate the over 32 lakh migrant laborers who returned to the State. Contact tracing procedures, screening procedures and quarantine facilities have been equally spotty. Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) have an important role among frontline workers on the ground, battling the COVID-19 pandemic but they have neither been given adequate security nor payment for work done in the past. The same is true for contractual health workers, Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANM) & Pharmacists.

Advocate Enrolment No: D/8413/

  1. Because the State could neither measure the spread nor the magnitude of the pandemic, dedicated COVID facilities such as Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital in Bhagalpur are facing lack of manpower due to staff crunch and unsanitary conditions. Getting oneself tested is still an arduous task in Bihar; to make matters worse, Government hospitals are refusing to take incoming patients citing resource crunch. Even in cases where admission is granted and beds are provided to patients, there is a serious shortage of oxygen cylinders, ventilators, nasal cannula and nutritious and hygienic food for patients. Senior resident doctors are missing from Government hospitals.
  2. It may further be noted that rapid antigen tests are not conclusive to determine positivity of COVID- 19 and in case of a negative result, an RT PCR test has to necessarily follow such rapid antigen test to conclusively determine positivity. However, it is not clear whether the State is taking adequate steps towards increasing the number of RT PCR tests as focus in most districts appears to be on starting rapid antigen tests.
  3. Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are replete with posts and videos which not only show helpless patients struggling to get accommodation in Government hospitals- let alone quality treatment or medication from doctors- but also make it apparent that most government hospitals have no mechanism in place for disposal of dead bodies with dignity. That the dignity of the dead must be respected has been stated in unequivocal terms by the Karnataka High Court; the Bombay High Court had earlier made it clear that right to decent burial/cremation is a facet of right to life. Not only have videos of dismal conditions of Government hospitals flooded social media, the crisis has also been covered by leading news channels such as NDTV India and Aaj Tak.
  4. Lastly, even though the Patna Civil Surgeon had issued an order dated 20 July 2020 notifying 290 beds for COVID-19 patients across 18 private health facilities in the State capital, most of these private facilities are either underprepared to deal with COVID-patients- and therefore refusing admission- or already working on full capacity. The Bihar Epidemic Diseases, COVID-19 Regulation 2020
  5. By Notification No 11 ą¤®ą¤¹ą¤¾ (ą¤µą¤æą¤µą¤æą¤§) 01/2020-208(11) dated 17 March 2020 and published in Part IV of the Bihar Gazette Extraordinary, the Department of Health, Government of Bihar had, in exercise of the powers conferred under the provisions of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 , issued the Bihar Epidemic Diseases, COVID- 19 Regulation 2020 (ā€œ Bihar COVID Regulations ā€). Bihar COVID Regulations have been issued to to take special measures to prevent the outbreak of COVID-19 or the spread thereof.
  6. As per Regulation 17(vii) of the Bihar COVID Regulations, if cases of COVID- 19 are reported from a defined geographic area such as village, town, city, ward, colony, settlement etc., the District Magistrate of the concerned district shall have the right to designate any government/private building as containment unit for

Advocate Enrolment No: D/8413/ VI. Ramping up the provisions of beds, oxygen cylinders, ventilators, nasal cannula, nutritious food and clean water as well as maintenance of hygienic, healthy, wholesome and sanitary conditions in all health facilities for potential and admitted COVID-19 patients; VII. Ramping up the number of RT PCR tests being conducted in the State and ensuring that rapid antigen tests which show a negative result are necessarily followed up by a RT PCR test to avoid the threat of a ā€˜false negativeā€™; VIII. Providing accessible and affordable ambulance service in all the districts of Bihar; and IX. Any other measure which you in your wisdom deem fit to contain this raging pandemic. In this time of acute crisis, the electorate of Bihar places its trust in its chosen Government. I am hopeful and confident that if the Government and the citizens of Bihar work together, we can effectively contain the spread of this pandemic and minimise the loss of lives due to COVID-19. Harshit Anand Advocate Enrolment No: D/8413/ Email: [email protected] Copy to:

  1. Sri Shashank Sekhar Sinha, B.A.S, P.S. to Honā€™ble Minister; and
  2. Sri Pratyay Amrit, I.A.S, Principal Secretary, Department of Health.