Public-private partnership built in fight against COVID-19, can strengthen healthcare system, says Dr. Naresh Trehan
The Hindu
‘We don’t know if this virus can come in a new mutant form. Besides, active surveillance across India is required to contain any future outbreak at the earliest.’
Strong public-private partnership built during the country’s collective fight against COVID-19, can go a long way in strengthening India’s healthcare system, says Naresh Trehan, chairman and chief cardiac surgeon, Medanta–The MediCity, and who is on the 12-member COVID-19 Task Force set up by the Supreme Court, in an interview with.
It took us little time to retrain our existing medical staff in administering the COVID-19 vaccine. As soon as the vaccine supply was ramped up, the programme took off. The second biggest challenge was vaccine hesitancy, a result of misinformation or false information that vaccine causes infertility, that it can harm you in many other ways, which made the first priority group, including a lot of young nurses, hesitant to take the jab. But as time passed, people started understanding that this was not true and that the vaccines were safe.
During the second wave, with COVID-19 raging, people were concerned about catching the infection while waiting for their vaccination. So, we came up with innovative ways of delivering the vaccine. We vaccinated people in their cars, so they would come in their car, park it in a designated space, take the jab inside their car, wait for half an hour in their car under the supervision of a doctor and go back. In the entire process, the person would remain in his/her own car, which is a safe place for them.