The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Public Health System Challenges in India

Nair, K. S.

This paper attempts to provide an overview of the COVID-19 pandemic situation in India and highlights various public health system challenges faced by the country in its efforts to control the pandemic. This paper is based on extensive review of literature conducted to stimulate pertinent descriptive information on COVID-19 pandemic and public health system challenges in India. The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges on India's public health system. India has implemented several strategies to mitigate the pandemic, but the rapid spread of the virus poses huge challenges of hitherto unseen scale on multiple fronts. India's public health system is chronically underfunded, leading to a shortage of COVID-19 treatment facilities. Even the available health resources are unevenly distributed across states resulting in huge disparities in emergency preparedness and management of the pandemic. Due to lack of robust primary health care system and effective public health strategies, vulnerable population in most states are prone to the pandemic and risk of severe complications. The findings can draw attentions of health policy makers to develop appropriate policy for future pandemic preparedness and management.