India May be in Stage 3: COVID-19 Hospital Task Force Convener

“Yes, we are calling it Stage 3. Officially we may not call it – but it is the beginning of Stage 3,” said Dr Girdhar Gyani, the convenor of a task force on COVID-19 hospitals, in an interview to the The Quint. Dr Gyani, who’s the founder of the Association of Healthcare Providers, was part of a video conference of healthcare professionals with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 24 March. This task force on COVID-19 hospitals is among a couple of task forces that were created in response to an initiative led by NITI Aayog to combat coronavirus outbreak in the country. Dr Gyani is an engineer who holds a PhD in Quality Management. His NGO – the Association of Healthcare Providers – actively advises the government with policy-making around healthcare. “We are running short of time in preparing COVID-19 hospitals as the outbreak in India can happen any day in the coming weeks. We do not have enough trained medical staff and COVID-19 hospitals yet,” Dr Gyani further added. Host: Poonam Agarwal