COVID-19's New Graph: Flatten the Curve, But Also Raise the Bar

COVID-19's New Graph: Flatten the Curve, But Also Raise the Bar

Flatten the curve, but also raise the bar

Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 3-week extension of the lockdown till 3 May, the focus and the purpose of these hard lockdowns has been social distancing and what's being called 'flattening the curve'. Flattening the curve of the outbreak has been at the centre of the fight against COVID-19 across the world and this has included social distancing, washing hands and staying at home. Flattening the curve reduces the peak of hospitalisation and potential deaths, reducing the burden on the healthcare services, that is already overburdened. But, more and more experts, across the world, are now advocating “Raising the Bar”, along with flattening the curve.

Flattening the Curve

So, What Exactly is Raising the Bar?

While the rate of transmission of COVID-19 will definitely reduce by flattening the curve, what also needs to happen is the capacity of the healthcare system has to be raised, really quickly, to be able to reduce the number of deaths. This has to be done by:

• Rapidly increasing the manufacturing and distribution of testing kits.

• Increasing the capacity of the medical infrastructure, adding more beds and building more care centres

• Ensuring there are enough masks for medical workers and ventilators. Right now, there is a global shortage of both.

• And lastly, as far possible, to stop elective surgeries and opt for tele-medicine.

The question is, if we are curbing the spread by flattening the curve, then why do we still need to also focus on rapidly increasing our healthcare capacity. That is because even as we flatten the curve, the healthcare system is still struggling with adequate resources to treat patients. To completely bring the fatality rates down, the bar has to be raised to bring the full peak of the outbreak under the critical line.

India’s healthcare system is already massively stretched and the number of cases of COVID-19 , despite the lockdown, has been increasing. There is no cure, there is no vaccine. So, to ride this pandemic out as bravely as possible, we need to still sit at home, practice social distancing, but the government, both at the centre and at the state level, have to work round the clock to prepare for the possibility of an increased number of cases coming in and do their best to save as many lives as possible.

Raise the Bar