The side effects

Time to focus on unintended consequences of Covid-19

The abrupt, unprecedented cessation of economic and public life to fight Covid-19 has been driven by necessity, but the Centre and state governments may need to urgently focus on the unintended side effects on public health and livelihoods too. The first— and the most obvious — is the need to revive existing medical infrastructure to enable the treatment of non-Covid-19 medical conditions, which may worsen because the health care system is focused on the pandemic. Most hospitals have closed their operating theatres since all elective surgeries have been postponed indefinitely, and outpatient departments are accepting mostly Covid-19 cases. Although these