Coronavirus Impact: Bill Gates Says Complete Isolation Is Key, But Will Not Be Easy For India
Gates said it was important to get cheap testing out to the developing countries as fast as possible.
As India goes into a 21-day complete lockdown amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Microsoft co-founder said it was way more difficult for a country like this to do social distancing and shutdowns alone would not help in containing the virus.
“[Narendra] Modi in India said he wants India to do (social distancing) it. I hope it works, but it is way more difficult as you move down the income ladder than it is for a country like the United States,” Bill Gates said during a TED Connects online broadcast programme.
The novel coronavirus outbreak—that killed nine people in India and infected more than 500—forced the government to seal the nation’s borders to contain the spread, shutting businesses temporarily in Asia’s third-largest economy.
Gates, in an hour long online chat with the head of TED Chris Anderson, also said that countries like India won’t be able to reduce its inner household spread nearly to the degree at which rich countries, that shut down as well, have done.
“I’m really worried there will be massive number of deaths in those poor countries, because their health systems aren’t well, and when you overload that system, then your deaths are not just Covid deaths,” he said. These countries, according to Gates, need new tools or some seasonality factor to slow down the impact.
Gates said it was important to get cheap testing out to the developing countries as fast as possible. “We need to get therapeutic drugs, so you don’t need to put 5 percent of the people on respirators, because even though they have equipment, they don’t have the personnel, don’t have the beds and capacities.”
The rich countries have better health infrastructure and will learn about testing therapeutics and fund the vaccine for the entire world to minimise the damage in the developing countries, he said.
According to Gates, even the U.S. needs to ramp up its Covid-19 testing abilities. “In terms of testing, we’re still not creating that capacity and applying it to people in need,” he said. “The testing thing has got to be organised, has got to be prioritised. That is super, super urgent.”
The rising cases of infection have now prompted India to allow private labs to test for Covid-19. There are 26 private labs across the country that can carry out the test, besides 119 government centres.
Is There A Middle Way?
Gates said there was no “middle way” to deal with the virus and testing and complete isolation was key to contain the spread.
“It is sad that shutdowns will be harder for the poor countries, than it is for richer countries,” he said. “We need extreme shutdown, and then in 6-10 weeks if things go well, then you can start opening back up.” The countries, Gates said, will have to take huge economic pain to minimise the pain in the disease and death dimension.