New Delhi: India’s slow testing and poor contact tracing in the initial days of the Covid-19 pandemic led to the exponential growth of cases in the country, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare said in its report.
The report, submitted to Vice President Venkaiah Naidu Saturday, said even the specialised cadre whose mandate it is to respond to outbreaks remained under-utilised.
The panel also expressed apprehension over the current overreliance on the “less-reliable” antigen tests, saying it could derail the fight against the SARS-CoV2 virus.
“The Committee believes that poor contact tracing and less testing could have been a factor for the exponential growth of Covid cases in the country. The Committee is also worried at the use of less reliable diagnostic tests which increase the chances of false negatives. Though the Rapid Antigen Tests may give faster results but are less reliable than the gold standard RT-PCR tests. Large scale use of such tests with low specificity and sensitivity may end up giving false negatives and subsequently derail the Covid-19 containment strategy,” the standing committee said in its 123rd report.
The committee also urged the government to “assess the veracity of Rapid Antigen Tests vis-à-vis RT-PCR and other diagnostic tests conducted to bring forth the true picture of the testing capacity in the country.”
The panel said it strongly recommends “the Ministry to ramp up the testing facilities in the country for more accurate tests” and “testing rate through the more reliable RT-PCR tests.”
The standing committee is chaired by Samajwadi Party Rajya Sabha MP Ram Gopal Yadav.
‘Few glaring lapses’
Parliamentary committee reports are tabled in the House, but since the winter session of Parliament is unlikely to take place this year due to the pandemic, it was submitted to the Chairman of the Upper House so that it can be forwarded to the government for further action.
The committee praised the government for the early lockdown that, it said, saved lives, but also flagged a “few glaring lapses in the battle against pandemic like shortage of emergency supplies, red-tapism, shortage and quality of testing kits, delay in domestic production.”
However, the report did not make any significant observations or recommendations on the crisis that unfolded following the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown on 25 March, when thousands of migrant workers were forced to walk home.
It, however, noted mental health issues and income loss faced by migrants, including women workers.
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Health ministry pulled up
The panel also asked the Union health ministry to submit a note explaining why only few beds in Delhi government hospitals were reserved for Covid patients during the early days of the pandemic.
In Ram Manohar Lohia hospital, out of the 1,572 beds, only 242 beds were dedicated Covid beds, whereas in Safdarjung Hospital, out of 2,873 beds, only 289 were reserved for Covid-19 patients.
“The Committee fails to understand the rationale behind the miniscule number of beds reserved for Covid patients in the Central government hospitals, especially at a time when the number of Covid patients were increasing rapidly in the capital city,” the report noted.
It also asked to be apprised of the status of beds exclusively reserved for Covid patients in Delhi.
It also flagged the poor utilisation of railway coaches that were made into Covid care centres, even as people struggled to find a bed in hospitals. Indian Railways has 813 coaches with 12,472 beds. However, till July 21, only 454 Covid patients were admitted in these Covid care centres.
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IDSP under-utilised
The committee also noted that the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) were not used enough in the pandemic response even though it is the mandate of the latter to track infectious disease outbreaks.
“The Committee feels that NCDC-IDSP should have been utilized in a more effective manner especially when the sole objective of IDSP is to detect and respond to outbreaks in the early rising phase through trained Rapid Response Teams (RRTs). The Committee, therefore, strongly recommends for revitalizing the enshrined role and responsibility of NCDC for effective control of the disease along with strengthening of the Central Surveillance Unit (CSU), State Surveillance Units (SSU) and District Surveillance Units (DSU),” the report noted.
It asked the health ministry to launch the IDSP beyond the existing nine states — Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat, Punjab, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan.
It also expressed concerns about the problems faced by patients suffering from diseases other than Covid due to closure of OPDs in government hospitals. Female patients and patients with chronic and lethal diseases were the worst sufferers, the committee said.
Panel favours setting up Indian Health Service
In the context of the pandemic, the committee made a strong pitch in favour of setting up Indian Health Service along the lines of the Indian Administrative Service to streamline healthcare delivery. This was envisaged in the National Health Policy 2017, but never took off.
The panel also said the budgetary allocation for departments engaged in scientific research is very poor and needs to be urgently enhanced.
“The Committee observes with concern that as compared to other departments involved in scientific research, the budgetary allocation of Department of Health Research has been one of the lowest in 2019-20, i.e, Rs. 1900 crores. For the year 2020-21, the budget marginally increased to Rs. 2100 crores. The Committee, in its 119th Report of the Committee on the Demands for Grants for the year 2020-21 of the Department of Health Research, had expressed its deep concern over the lower budgetary allocation during 2020- 21 vis-à-vis projected demands under various components of DHR schemes/ICMR. The Committee had highlighted that the shortfall in allocations under the schemes would severely impact the establishment of new Viral Research & & Diagnostic Laboratories…”, it said.
It also expressed concern over misleading advertisements of AYUSH products as immunity boosters and asked the Ministry of AYUSH to monitor such ads.
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