Editor's Pick: The trouble with 'test, track, treat'

(The Editor's Pick is a new newsletter from The Hindu that provides a snapshot of the most important stories from today's edition of our newspaper, along with a note from our top editors on why we chose to give prominence to these stories.)

A meeting of high-level central and State government official chaired by the Prime Minister has taken stock of the ongoing pandemic situation, looking into some of the key issues that have come up, including the shortage of hospital beds, oxygen and Remdesivir. States that are seeing massive spikes in numbers have been asked to step up the number of hospital beds, especially oxygenated ones. The Centre also announced that a large number of oxygen plants are being set up to meet the shortage.

At the meeting the PM reiterated the importance of "testing, tracking and treating" in India's current fight against the virus. In this trio, a key number which India has been able to keep high is testing. The country currently has the capacity to test 15 lakh samples a day and has been almost hitting that number in the past few days. As for tracking, the strained healthcare system is struggling to keep up as the load of daily new cases has gone over the two-lakh mark. At another meeting yesterday of Health Ministers chaired by Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, large containment zones for achieving community quarantine were also suggested as a strategy. PM Modi had earlier suggested micro-containment zones as the best way forward, so as to contain the disease without throttling the economy.

Treatment is the primary pain-point at present, with almost all States running out of beds and oxygen, and a black market opening up in Remdesivir, the primary treatment option in acute cases. Hard-hit New Delhi and Mumbai are seeing a shortage of oxygen, with the CMs of Maharashtra and Delhi highlighting the issue.

These major stumbling blocks in India's "test, track, treat" strategy are what makes this story important.

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