Tag: Medanta

COVID-19 vaccination drive 2.0 gathers pace: Experts discuss

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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It is day two of the second phase of the Centre’s vaccination drive – nearly 3 million people registered for the shots on day 1. According to the Health Ministry’s data, nearly 1.46 lakh people from the two priority groups got inoculated till 7 pm yesterday. The priority groups comprise of those over 60 years and those over 45 years, but with specified co-morbidities.

Cabinet Ministers including Health Minister Harsh Vardhan were administered COVID vaccine doses. Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi were also among the beneficiaries.

Business leaders queued up to get inoculated as well. Kotak Mahindra Bank’s Managing Director Uday Kotak took to Twitter to share his experience after getting the jab.

Meanwhile, the government’s CoWIN portal continues to face technical issues, even as Vardhan claimed that glitches faced yesterday have been resolved.

Watch accompanying video of Dr NK Arora, Dr Alok Roy, the Chairman of Medica Group of Hospitals, Dr Naresh Trehan, The Chairman and Managing Director of Medanta-the Medicity and Dr Rajesh Dere, the dean of the COVID jumbo facility at Mumbai’s Bandra-Kurla Complex discussing the vaccination drive as it gathers pace.

Dr NK Arora is heading the operations research group which is part of the National Task Force set up by Indian Council of Medical Research in response to COVID-19. Dr Alok Roy also serves as the Chairman of FICCI Healthcare Services. Dr Naresh Trehan serves as the Chairman of CII’s Healthcare Council.

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There is a legitimate need to expand testing of COVID-19, says Biocon’s Kiran Mazumdar Shaw

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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With the coronavirus now spreading at an alarming rate, accredited private labs would be allowed to test for Covid-19. However, this has raised several questions regarding costs, sanitation, hygiene etc.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, chairperson and managing director of Biocon; Viren Shetty, ED & group COO of Narayana Health and Naresh Trehan, CMD of Medanta in an interaction with CNBC-TV18 tried to clear some of the doubts.

Mazumdar Shaw said, “There is a legitimate need for expanding capacity of testing, which the government clearly recognises now. There is concern that if we don’t have some controls, things could run amok because there will be attempts to profiteer under this situation of panic. I also believe that we need to be very judicious about who is tested. I don’t think there is any need for everybody to be tested. So, from that point of view I think there is justification in what the government is concerned about. Having said that, I do believe that the private sector has to be a partner in this whole battle against this invisible enemy as it is often referred to.”

She further added, “We do have a large number of labs in the private sector which can test the Coronavirus and we need to put in place the capacity. Now as far as whether it is free or not, the understanding was if the government supplies the private sector with kits there is a possibility that some of the labs might be able to waive off their service charges and just do the test for free. By and large I think this whole question on whether free or not can be solved by maximum retail price (MRP) and also controlling it through prescription based diagnostic.”

“So peace can be the way forward. Government is willing to listen to whatever model the private sector comes up with,” she said.

Trehan said, “Most definitely we need to test wider and if the need be that the private labs need to be recruited – then definitely they should be. You can fix a price. If you do the exact costing of what it will take for the labs to collect the samples – one of the dangers that I have heard from the private labs is that if a large number of people are suspected to be Coronavirus, descent on their labs then they don’t have the capacity to deal with them. So the proposal is that they should pick up the samples from home in a viral transport medium, do the test and deliver the results. The real cost can be easily calculated. There are enough labs in this country who have the PCR and all the capabilities.”

He further added, “If we are all on the same platform, we have the same rules of the game the same cost price – I would go a little further – there are some people who will not be able to afford and who need it so every lab can volunteer 10 percent of the test or x number of test to do free, so that will help the people who are unable to afford it. So this is a time for us to put our heads together and in our CSR, we should be able to help or assist the people and the government in achieving the objective of trying to contain it.”

When asked how to prevent profiteering in such situation Shetty said, “In terms of profiteering at the time of panic there is nothing you can do to prevent that, but the fact is government has all the ability to fix the prices of the test and the other one is we are a free market. If you allow every private lab to do the test, some labs will decide they are five star labs, they will charge more for it, some labs will decide we will charge it at the budget and for those who can’t afford it they can go to the government labs anyway for the past two months the government labs have been doing it for free. The problem is we are very under testing our population, we are doing only 5 test per million people so we have to take a more aggressive response to this because this is a very aggressive disease.”

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Coronavirus scare: Do not panic but be extremely careful, says Medanta

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said there are now five positive cases of Coronavirus in India, as of now. One need not create panic but avoid unnecessary travel. The country would be activating 19 more testing centers soon.

Naresh Trehan, CMD of Medanta assessing the coronavirus contagion said, “This is one of those situations where you cannot be too careful. So far we have not detected does not mean that virus COVID-19 does not exist in India. Now it is becoming evident that we have not escaped completely and more and more cases will surface in the near future,” he said.

“The Health Minister is right in saying  that we are increasing the number of testing centers because that is essential. Unless you are found to be really sick, the tests were not being done. We had requested the health minister to increase the number of centers because if we suspect somebody, they should be tested because that is the only way to contain it.”

“Now that the time has come that the virus has officially arrived here, one thing is to say not to panic but the other thing is to say be extremely careful. Avoid crowded places, wash your hands frequently, it survives on surfaces so when you touch something, do not touch your eyes or mouth because you can contaminate yourself. As a protection, wear a mask if you are going to crowded places and unnecessary travel should be avoided at this time, stay close to home and away from crowded places till we find the exact extent of the spread,” he added.

“The only good thing that I can think of is that we know it is heat sensitive, so possibly if it gets warmer, we will be protected by nature itself. Till that time we have to be extremely careful. The more careful we are, the less likely we will get the epidemic in India,” said Trehan.

“Once we start exceeding 30 degree centigrade, there is a very good likelihood that the virus will die itself. North India has not reached 30 degree centigrade yet but hopefully it will get warmer faster. That maybe a natural protection for India,” he further mentioned.

“I would like to strike a strong warning that you have to careful. Although the word panic is not be used, extremely careful has to be used.” he said.

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TPG-Manipal in talks to buy a majority stake in Medanta, says report

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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TPG Capital and Manipal Health Enterprises together are in talks to buy a majority stake in Medanta from investors and co-founder Naresh Trehan, Mint reported.

“While the discussions are still on and it is yet to submit a bid, Manipal-TPG is likely to offer a valuation of Rs 6,000 crore for Medanta,” one of the sources close to the development told the paper.

TPG-Manipal is the only active bidder for Medanta after Malaysia’s IHH Healthcare withdrew its non-binding bid after it acquired Fortis Healthcare Ltd in July. IHH had submitted a bid for Medanta, valuing the firm at around Rs 5,700 crore, the report said.

Both TPG and Manipal spokespersons declined to comment to Mint.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow