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Morning Briefing

Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

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Wednesday, May 5 2021

Full Issue

India Facing 'Human Catastrophe'; Surge Spreads To Nepal

As reports discuss the covid outbreak in India and note it's even impacting Nepal, the country's delegation to the G7 meeting are isolating in London after members tested positive.

Rohan Aggarwal is 26 years old. He doesn't even complete his medical training until next year. And yet, at one of the best hospitals in India, he is the doctor who must decide who will live and who will die when patients come to him gasping for breath, their family members begging for mercy. As India's healthcare system teeters on the verge of collapse during a brutal second wave of the novel coronavirus, Aggarwal makes those decisions during a 27-hour workday that includes a grim overnight shift in charge of the emergency room at his New Delhi hospital. (Pal, 5/5)

As a devastating second wave of COVID-19 infections began to hit India, Dr. Naresh Ramarajan knew what the country would need: portable oxygen concentrators. Ramarajan, an emergency room physician and health-tech entrepreneur in Cambridge, saw firsthand how the equipment — which increases the oxygen level in room air and feeds it to patients through tubes attached to their nostrils — saved lives during the second wave in Los Angeles, where he trained and has on occasion returned to help. The concentrators, which can be used at home, allow hospitals to free up beds for the sickest patients. (Leung and Edelman, 5/4)

Nepal is being overwhelmed by a COVID-19 surge as India's outbreak spreads across South Asia, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on Wednesday. ... Nepal is now recording 57 times as many cases as a month ago, with 44% of tests now coming back positive, the statement said. Nepalese towns near the Indian border could not cope with the growing number of people needing treatment, while only 1% of the country's population was fully vaccinated. (5/5)

Also —

Big banks and accounting firms do most of their business in New York, London, Hong Kong and Tokyo. But they wouldn't be able to function without their back offices, many of which are located in Covid-stricken India. Financial services firms have outsourced a huge number of information technology and operations jobs to India in recent decades, attracted by an educated workforce and cheaper labor costs. Almost 4.4 million people in the country are employed in IT and business process management, according to the National Association of Software and Service Companies, a trade body. (Ziady and Tappe, 5/5)

India’s entire delegation to the Group of Seven summit in London is self-isolating after two of its members tested positive for COVID-19, the British government said on Wednesday. "Two delegates tested positive so the entire delegation is now self isolating," a British official said. "The meeting had been enabled by a strict set of COVID protocols, including daily testing of all delegates," the British official said. (James and Bruce, 5/5)

This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
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