'With a pandemic raging, now is not the time to test the
highest prices the market will bear' - Stijn Deborggraeve,
Diagnostics Advisor at MSF's Access
Campaign'1
INTRODUCTION
It was March 11, 2020 that world got one of the biggest jolt of
the century when World Health Organization's Director-General
Tedros Adhanom announced that the COVID-19 outbreak, that started
in December 2019 in Wuhan city of China, to be a pandemic,
cautioning that the WHO has "rung the alarm bell loud and
clear." Its almost one month since then and as per the health
offices the virus is here to stay with us for a while.
Currently, apart from the threat posed by the pandemic, another
challenge that the government must deal with is to ensure critical
availability of medical infrastructure like ventilators, drugs etc.
to handle the patients, so that the mortality rate remains low.