NATHEALTH calls for unified response to arrest coronavirus impact

Apex healthcare industry body NATHEALTH on Tuesday called for a unified response to deal with the cascading impact of coronavirus.

The government has initiated a number of critical measures and built up necessary reserves based on planned contingencies for critical medical supplies to reduce cascading effects of coronavirus impact on human lives, it said in a statement.

"Private sector players will be happy to collaborate with the government to augment the diagnostics/ treatment capacity as was done in 2009 when H1N1 had started spreading incessantly," NATHEALTH President H Sudarshan Ballal said.

Though the disease is more infectious than the regular flu, it seems less fatal than some of the other epidemics the country has faced, he added.

NATHEALTH has also asked the government to include the private sector in contingency planning to potential scenarios at both central and state levels in India.

It also asked the government to consider creating a strategic pool of private sector hospitals, diagnostic labs, protective equipment supply, medicines and frontline workers and to demarcate their roles in different contingency scenarios.