Four years ago, on March 24, India implemented a stringent lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19. This measure was mirrored globally, with countries closing borders and urging citizens to remain indoors.
Despite the pandemic's impact, preparedness for health emergencies remained inadequate a year later. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) report, released on March 14, revealed that "91 per cent of economies worldwide did not have a national response plan" for medical countermeasures in 2021.
India's Global Health Security Index score declined from 43.6 in 2019 to 42.8 in 2021, falling behind other nations. Notably, Japan, Brazil, and Russia showed improvement.
The index emphasized that no country was fully prepared for future pandemics. India ranked among the top three countries with the highest COVID-19 cases since January 2020, with the United States recording the most (103.4 million) and China following with 99.3 million.
Globally, 7.04 million lives were lost, primarily in the United States. India reported 533,495 deaths.
India's vaccination rate lagged behind others. As of November 2023, only 74% of the population had received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, compared to 90% in China, 87% in Brazil, 83% in Japan, and 82% in the United States.
Additionally, only 17% of Indians had received a booster dose, significantly lower than China's 57%.
The ADB report highlighted India's utilization of its three-tier health facility system to combat the pandemic. By 2020, the government had established 15,378 treatment facilities with 1.3 million isolation beds, 270,710 oxygen-supported isolation beds, 81,113 ICU beds, and 40,627 ventilator-ICU beds. To address oxygen shortages, industrial oxygen was repurposed for medical use.