Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Rishi_Tri · Post by **Rishi_Tri** » 16 Apr 2020 22:48

pankajs wrote:And more ...

https://twitter.com/ManMundra/status/12 ... 1133367298
Manish Mundra @ManMundra

We have today sent Venus masks to following hospitals/ cities Mumbai/ Patna/ Ranchi / Banglore / Jaipur I personally thank @SandeepMall
for coordinating the supply chain. #IndiaFightsCorona #LetsDoMore
Manish has done more than his bit for the country and that is very much appreciated.

Why are private individuals tracking down producers/suppliers, funding the purchase, coordinating the supply, and getting it to the doctors?!

Where is GOI?

GOI should have built an app in the lines of Aarogya Setu that would have tracked demand from the doctors and the suppliers of each item and allowed resources to be allocated efficiently all around plus tracked orders and supplies as well as history to check misuse. This is hugely disappointing.

Where is GOI? - Here is GOI.

https://www.republicworld.com/india-new ... hcare.html

Ananya Varma | Mumbai | Updated On: April 15, 2020 17:57 IST

Once again the Indian Railways showed their dedication towards contributing in the fight against COVID-19 by announcing that they were producing over 30,000 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) coveralls in April. The Ministry of Railways in a statement announced that they would continue this production into next month and had planned to manufacture 1,00,000 of the same in May 2020 for medical and health-care personnel who are at a high risk of getting exposed to the COVID-19 virus.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ind ... 903202.cms

Mar 31, 2020

Centre: 21 Lakh PPE Kits Ordered, 60,000 supplied to hospital

The health ministry on Monday said it has placed orders for 21 lakh personal protection equipment (PPE) coveralls for medical staff dealing with Covid-19 patients with 11 domestic manufacturers, where as around 60,000 PPE kits have already been procured and supplied to hospitals and healthcare workers across the country.

In a move to ensure smooth supplies of ventilators and PPEs like masks and coveralls, the government has stepped up efforts to manufacture, procure and boost the supply of such items. This has been part of an ongoing effort after it became apparent that foreign supply was limited. Guidelines were issued in early March and intensive consultations with likely manufacturers were held.

"Domestic manufacturers rose to the occasion and so far 11 manufacturers have cleared quality tests. Orders for 21 lakh PPE coveralls have been placed with them. Currently they are supplying 6000-7000 overalls per day and this is expected to go up to 15,000 per day within next week. One more manufacturer has qualified today and an order of 5 lakh overalls has been placed with it." the ministry said.

https://psuwatch.com/coronavirus-govt-r ... equipment/

Coronavirus: Govt ropes in DPSUs to produce PPE, medical equipment

by Defence Watch Bureau March 30, 2020

New Delhi: In order to give a boost to India’s ability to produce PPE (personal protection equipment) kits and other essential medical equipment in the fight against Coronavirus pandemic, the government has roped in various PSUs like BEL, DRDO, and BEML. While BEL has received an order for 30,000 ventilators, DRDO, in collaboration with local companies, is producing 20,000 N99 masks per day. All drug companies have assured the government that there will not be any shortage of drugs during this crisis and even auto manufacturers are working to develop and produce ventilators.

An order for 30,000 ventilators has been placed with BEL, which is going to collaborate with domestic manufacturers in this endeavour. Domestic manufacturer Agva Healthcare in Noida has been able to develop suitable ventilators and order of 10,000 ventilators has been placed with it. Supplies are expected to commence by the second week of April. Indian Auto manufacturers are also preparing to manufacture ventilators.
In the meantime, orders have been placed on international companies like Hamilton, Mindray, and Draeger to supply ventilators. Ministry of External Affairs is also approaching suppliers in China for sourcing 10,000 ventilators from them.

N95 masks are being manufactured by two domestic producers. They are able to supply 50,000 masks per day at the moment, but are ramping up capacities to make 1 lakh masks per day within the next week. DRDO is also collaborating with local manufacturers to produce about 20,000 N99 masks per day. This supply is also expected to become available in a week’s time.

Hospitals in the country have 11.95 lakh N95 masks in stock as of now. Additional 5 lakh masks were distributed in the past two days and 1.40 lakh masks are being distributed today. 10 lakh masks would be part of the PPE kits being sourced from Singapore.

Cyrano · Post by **Cyrano** » 16 Apr 2020 23:14

Spoke to my cousin who is a doctor in NY state. They still don't have adequate PPE kits, Covid patients are very difficult to save once they go on to ventilator. HCQ works sometimes, and doesn't at other times. No observable patterns to it. They will soon start trials with plasma from recovered patients.

He reminded me that flattening is just buying time. The area of the portion under the graph remains the same.

He says herd immunity will eventually happen but there is a double danger lurking ahead. Flattening the curve will only extend the patient load a few months out, straight into the arms of the flu season which starts in September. How Covid & flu will "collaborate" in a patient and the influx of cases infected with one or the other and both are giving him nightmares. That will stretch the US health care system beyond what anyone can imagine now.

The only real hope is a vaccine, but that is quite some time away.

Krita · Post by **Krita** » 16 Apr 2020 23:15

Most Chinese virus cases(about 60%) aboard U.S. aircraft carrier are symptom-free

https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.reu ... SKCN21Y2GB

DrRatnadip · Post by **DrRatnadip** » 16 Apr 2020 23:54

https://m.timesofindia.com/city/mumbai/ ... 171510.cms

NO mass distribution of HCQ as prophylactic in mumbai..

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 17 Apr 2020 00:49

Primus wrote:
ramana wrote:Docs where are you all located? Just the region.
Based in one of the top three counties in the US in terms of number infected. Live and work here.

Are you on Telegram?

pankajs · Post by **pankajs** » 17 Apr 2020 01:03

https://twitter.com/ShamikaRavi/status/ ... 4009626624

Shamika Ravi @ShamikaRavi

#DailyUpdate #Covid19India The growth rate of Active cases in last 5 days: 9.8% .... still doubling at 7 days.

pankajs · Post by **pankajs** » 17 Apr 2020 01:09

https://twitter.com/VikramMisri/status/ ... 6223170562

Vikram Misri @VikramMisri

#IndiaFightsCoronavirus A total of 650,000 kits, including Rapid Antibody Tests and RNA Extraction Kits have been despatched early today from Guangzhou Airport to #India | #2019nCoV #StayHomeSaveLives @MEAIndia
@HarshShringla @DrSJaishankar

6.5 Lakh Test kit has left China for India.

https://twitter.com/Teensthack/status/1 ... 6664157184

Teena Thacker @Teensthack

#Covid:Tens of thousands of #PPE kits fail quality tests. Kits made in China, the world’s main supplier,that were donated to the Indian govt, cannot be used. Of 170,000 PPE kits that arrived on Apr 5, abt 50,000 failed. Reporting with ⁦@ASMankotiaET
⁩

Primus · Post by **Primus** » 17 Apr 2020 01:30

ramana wrote:
Primus wrote:
Based in one of the top three counties in the US in terms of number infected. Live and work here.
Are you on Telegram?

I just installed it. Not popular in my circle yet. Am on WA though, with over 200 messages a day which is painful

Leonard · Post by **Leonard** » 17 Apr 2020 03:47

Looks like a STRONG steering committee has been established towards antiviral medicine remdesivir

https://www.statnews.com/2020/04/16/ear ... treatment/

The University of Chicago Medicine recruited 125 people with Covid-19 into Gilead’s two Phase 3 clinical trials. Of those people, 113 had severe disease. All the patients have been treated with daily infusions of remdesivir.
The best news is that most of our patients have already been discharged, which is great. We’ve only had two patients perish,” said Kathleen Mullane, the University of Chicago infectious disease specialist overseeing the remdesivir studies for the hospital.

Her comments were made this week during a video discussion about the trial results with other University of Chicago faculty members. The discussion was recorded and STAT obtained a copy of the video.

saip · Post by **saip** » 17 Apr 2020 03:48

Iran demonstrates its COVID19 test device. It looks very much like the fake bomb detector Pakis bought. Did Pakis sell that device to Iran?
Link

suryag · Post by **suryag** » 17 Apr 2020 04:06

Doc gurus how is Avigan doing? Am curious because I saw a news article where PRC and Japan are vying to supply these tablets

shaun · Post by **shaun** » 17 Apr 2020 05:33

pankajs wrote:
https://twitter.com/Teensthack/status/1 ... 6664157184
Teena Thacker @Teensthack

#Covid:Tens of thousands of #PPE kits fail quality tests. Kits made in China, the world’s main supplier,that were donated to the Indian govt, cannot be used. Of 170,000 PPE kits that arrived on Apr 5, abt 50,000 failed. Reporting with ⁦@ASMankotiaET
⁩

1.2 lacs PPE tested in such a short period of time ! How are PPE tested ?

suryag · Post by **suryag** » 17 Apr 2020 07:41

Looks like some very good news on Remdesivir, however, production is definitely a problem they can manufacture million courses only by the end of the year. It is expected that it will be consumed by US before anyone gets it, hope generics at our place can make it

chanakyaa · Post by **chanakyaa** » 17 Apr 2020 08:03

Sadly, here comes a big Thank You from the establishment. Looks like the author of the article has made a career going after the generic drug industry.

Exclusive: FDA may have dropped standards too far in hunt for chloroquine to fight coronavirus - sources (Katherine Eban)

...
Bayer has since donated three million tablets of the drug, called Resochin, to the U.S. national stockpile for treatment of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. After a brief period of testing, its use in the United States was approved on an emergency basis.

But three U.S. government sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that there is reason to be concerned about the quality of Resochin and its makers, located in India and Pakistan.
...

Avarachan · Post by **Avarachan** » 17 Apr 2020 08:57

DrRatnadip wrote:https://m.timesofindia.com/city/mumbai/ ... 171510.cms

NO mass distribution of HCQ as prophylactic in mumbai..

Oh, that's disappointing. I worry for the people of Mumbai. There can be heart-related complications with HCQ, but those are almost always associated with long-term use (i.e., years). (People with lupus, for instance, take HCQ on a long-term basis.)

As I wrote previously, I recommend watching this video clip of Dr. Robert Hariri. It's the most sensible commentary I know of regarding HCQ. Watch from 2:57 - 4:14.

https://twitter.com/NormLevy/status/1249364675948675072

Avarachan · Post by **Avarachan** » 17 Apr 2020 09:08

The situation with the state government in West Bengal is getting noticed.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-heal ... SKCN21W236

At around 3,000 tests for more than 90 million people, West Bengal has done just 33.7 tests per million, compared to a national average of around 156.9 per million, and 442 per million in the western state of Rajasthan ....

And Dr Shanta Dutta, who heads the federally-controlled main testing laboratory for West Bengal, said it had the capacity to conduct around 1,000 tests a day, but was not receiving that many samples submitted by medics.

But doctors complain that state authorities’ approval is needed for each test, and is regularly refused, meaning that patients suspected to be suffering from the highly contagious respiratory illness COVID-19 are not being isolated soon enough.

“If you suspect COVID and send the samples, either they are refused, or the report comes back after three to four days,” said Dr Arjun Dasgupta from the West Bengal Doctors Forum, which represents 19,000 doctors ....

Some doctors also believe coronavirus deaths are not being fully reported, with only a state-appointed committee allowed to declare if a patient has died from COVID-19.

I recommend this article (or something similar) be shared on social media ... The government of West Bengal needs to be pressured into doing the right thing. The spread of COVID-19 can be mitigated if the appropriate measures are taken. That's the evidence from around the world. But if the true extent of the problem is covered up, the appropriate actions won't be taken, and India will experience a catastrophe.

Kati · Post by **Kati** » 17 Apr 2020 10:30

Transfusions from people who beat COVID-19 show promising results
Doctors are looking for more people to donate blood to the tests.
Author: Meg Farris (WWL)
Published: 5:27 PM CDT April 14, 2020
Updated: 5:27 PM CDT April 14, 2020

https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/heal ... b685e1da2b

anmol · Post by **anmol** » 17 Apr 2020 10:31

Wuhan coronavirus death toll revised to 3,869 – 50% increase on previous figure

by Kelly Ho 17th April 2020

Health authorities in Wuhan, China have revised the death toll from the coronavirus upwards by over 50 per cent. Wuhan’s Epidemic Prevention and Control Center said on Friday that 3,869 people had died from the disease in the city as of Thursday, according to state media.

Fatalities are up by 1,290 compared to previous data. [..]

Vivek Kumar · Post by **Vivek Kumar** » 17 Apr 2020 10:39

I live in NYC. As of April 16, 1,397 of the 2,535 people tested had a positive result in my ZIP code. 18.2 per thousand people who live in my ZIP code have tested positive for Wuhan Corona virus. I live in a residential development with 120 buildings in an area of 0.482 sq mi with a population density of 84,000/sq mi. Scale that up to 468.484 sq mi and you get NYC! This development has a high density of Bangladeshi immigrants, and they are very seriously affected by Wuhan Corona virus. There have already been 9 confirmed deaths within 4-5 blocks of my apartment building that include 7 Bangladeshis, 1 Sri Lankan and 1 Latino immigrant. Sri Lankan guy started coughing in the morning. He was taken to the ER after about 1.5-2 hours. Hospital called after about an hour that the guy was dead. One lady was about 37-38 years old without any known comorbidity. A very well known infectious disease specialist who practiced in my development was one of the casualties. I know of one victim from Brooklyn in his 60s who was put on ventilator. Her recovered enough to be weaned off of it, but has since been transferred to Albany to recover. Heard from a friend about one Bangladeshi guy in my locality who is very seriously ill and has been denied admission in the hospital. He said that he is feeling better for last 2 days. I've heard that in NYC, if you have symptoms you need to have SpO2 of less than 85% to be transferred to the hospital. I have personally seen ambulances make 6 trips to my building. Our property management instituted very strict social distancing guidelines about 2 weeks before US & NYS govts. All play ground, ball courts, and all community activities were cancelled. It doesn't seem to have made much of a difference though.

My office building in downtown Manhattan had one +ve case as of week ending 03/13/20. Our office landlord had 2 more +ve cases in 2 other buildings in different parts of Manhattan as of the same week. A few buildings around my office also had +ve cases. Area was essentially a hot spot back then! Our office was closed on 03/15/20. I'm at home ever since. Not working as my job is not set up for telecommuting. With "NYS at Pause" extended till 05/15/20, I'm still not sure when our office will open again.

Personally, I'm following common sense precautions. I keep a small bottle of hand sanitizer in my pocket and use it frequently when outside. I strictly follow social distancing as advised. I don't use a mask, but keep a homemade one in my pocket in case I need to enter a store and have to obey NYS governor's executive order. I'm taking Vitamin C 1000 mg/day, and vitamin D3 4000 IU/day in addition to multivitamins. My PCP was using PPE on 03/13/20 during my appointment. He has closed since then, and is strictly doing over the phone consultations.

I go for long walks in the evenings on almost deserted streets. All but a few grocery stores and pharmacies are now closed in my area. All stores and pharmacies are strictly enforcing social distancing. Almost al the lines outside fast food joints are of Uber Eats drivers picking up deliveries. Otherwise not much happening in the name of economic activity.

greatde · Post by **greatde** » 17 Apr 2020 14:45

This 2nd lockdown is gonna be toughest.Already some people stopped giving free food to the needy people. There is a limit to how much middle class or individuals can volunteer to help the vulnerable people. The richest and poor groups have big voice and lobby with government and institutions, but middle class is often left on its own to survive.

chola · Post by **chola** » 17 Apr 2020 15:05

^^^ I think we best be ready for repeated lockdowns. Hoping for a miracle vaccine that can simply make this thing disappear overnight will not happen. It will take a year if not more to work things out even if there are trials today.

Hopefully each lockdown with experience can be executed with less pain and disruption over time.

If each lockdown is worse than the one before then there no hope except for herd immunity and we might as well let everyone get infected and attempt to live with that.

No, each subsequent lockdown must get progressively better and less disruptive.

DrRatnadip · Post by **DrRatnadip** » 17 Apr 2020 15:18

http://www.drugtodayonline.com/medical- ... itals.html

More than 70 percent of India's healthcare is dependant on private sector.. Many small and medium sized hospitals are finding it difficult to survive in present circumstances..

hanumadu · Post by **hanumadu** » 17 Apr 2020 15:18

How good is the PDS system in cities? Does all the urban poor get the low priced 5 kg wheat/rice and 1 kg of pulses per person? That will only last 5 to 10 days.

How are people surviving?

DrRatnadip · Post by **DrRatnadip** » 17 Apr 2020 15:26

https://m.timesofindia.com/world/china/ ... 193108.cms

China revised number of dead..
still I dont believe in Chinese number of COVID fatalities..

milindc · Post by **milindc** » 17 Apr 2020 16:20

hanumadu wrote:How good is the PDS system in cities? Does all the urban poor get the low priced 5 kg wheat/rice and 1 kg of pulses per person? That will only last 5 to 10 days.

How are people surviving?

Whoever has BPL ration card (white card in Telangana) is being taken care of.. some of the migrants who have identify proof from other states are definitely suffering. Anecdotal evidence is that atleast in few slums of Hyderabad, the govt is just distributing rice without any proof. They are just giving 5kgs per person of low quality rice.

IndraD · Post by **IndraD** » 17 Apr 2020 16:22

https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/04 ... ences.html

Report Says COVID-19 Patients Respond to Gilead's Remdesivir, Shares Surge

A section of media & drug company are promoting Remdesivir on basis of limited trials most of which are not over and not published except one on NEJM (small trial), we don;t know yet the composition of patients recruited how many of them were vantilated and in severe sepsis, how many in multi organ damage etc. Once the study is out in total it can be reviewed. In the meanwhile their shares are surging.

IndraD · Post by **IndraD** » 17 Apr 2020 16:27

A large section of media is out there to demonise HCQ as black drug which can kill. CNN published lengthy report on toxicity (cos Trump vouches for it),msm are criticising it based on Brazilian study which was halted after toxic effect on heart, they do not mention patients were being given 600 mg BD in a day which is insane dose. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/13/heal ... index.html

pankajs · Post by **pankajs** » 17 Apr 2020 16:53

https://twitter.com/ANINewsUP/status/12 ... 3519306753

ANI UP @ANINewsUP

Pool testing for #COVID19 has started in our state, Uttar Pradesh has become the first state in the country to do so. Under this, 30 pools of 5 samples each were tested in Agra, all came negative: Amit Mohan Prasad, State Principal Secretary (Health)

pankajs · Post by **pankajs** » 17 Apr 2020 17:11

https://twitter.com/Geeta_Mohan/status/ ... 0058628099

Geeta Mohan گیتا موہن गीता मोहन @Geeta_Mohan

Sources
India will not procure PPEs from China.
India will make sufficient no. of Personal Protective Equipments.
Orders already placed with 39 Indian manufacturers.

#CoronavirusPandemic #coronavirus #COVID19
@MFA_China
@China_Amb_India
@ChinaSpox_India

@MEAIndia
@MoHFW_INDIA

Good news if true at multiple levels.

nam · Post by **nam** » 17 Apr 2020 17:12

I so wish ICMR runs a study on the HCQ used by the medical professionals, police and contacts to see if it has helped to contain the viral load.

These are high probability cases and given the size, would give us a fairly good data.

Really don't know why we are not doing it.

Anyone has data on any deaths of medical professionals in India?

pankajs · Post by **pankajs** » 17 Apr 2020 17:43

pankajs wrote:
Teena Thacker @Teensthack

#Covid:Tens of thousands of #PPE kits fail quality tests. Kits made in China, the world’s main supplier,that were donated to the Indian govt, cannot be used. Of 170,000 PPE kits that arrived on Apr 5, abt 50,000 failed. Reporting with ⁦@ASMankotiaET
⁩

These 1.7 lakh PPE kits were donated to India.

pankajs · Post by **pankajs** » 17 Apr 2020 17:48

https://twitter.com/sidhant/status/1250808132718047233

Sidhant Sibal
@sidhant
Break up of 3336 Indians found #Covid positive in 53 countries

Kuwait 785 {One reason why we sent a team of doctors to Kuwait.}
Singapore 634
Qatar 420
Iran 308
Oman 297
UAE 238
Saudi Arabia 186
Bahrain 135
Italy 91
Malaysia 37
Portugal 36
Ghana 29
US 24
Switzerland 15
France 13

One reason why GOI may not be too keen to bring them back at this stage. Hopefully, they will all be brought back once all of them test negative after 28 days of quarantine.

greatde · Post by **greatde** » 17 Apr 2020 18:28

Prevention>Correction>Detection. That should be the priority and order, where lockdown>treatment>testing.

Random testing is a difficult and luxury, we have large population and some are asymptomatic. Many cases of being tested negative on Day 1, Day 7 but only to be infected on day 10 onwards. We simply dont have the resources.

Hotspots testing is better but we have unique problem where some just dont want to see doctors or will harass them.

Bart S · Post by **Bart S** » 17 Apr 2020 18:34

pankajs wrote:
pankajs wrote:
These 1.7 lakh PPE kits were donated to India.

They were donated by Jack Ma/Alibaba.

milindc wrote:
hanumadu wrote:How good is the PDS system in cities? Does all the urban poor get the low priced 5 kg wheat/rice and 1 kg of pulses per person? That will only last 5 to 10 days.

How are people surviving?
Whoever has BPL ration card (white card in Telangana) is being taken care of.. some of the migrants who have identify proof from other states are definitely suffering. Anecdotal evidence is that atleast in few slums of Hyderabad, the govt is just distributing rice without any proof. They are just giving 5kgs per person of low quality rice.

Govt has massive amounts of food rotting in warehouses and forecast for another bumper crop and good monsoon. Govt hoards way too much food anyway, a legacy of the food scarcity of the 60s etc with little adjustments being done to policy to account for decades of economic change and the country being food-surplus. Meanwhile fruits and vegetables (I have read news articles on banana farmers and watermelon farmers in distress) are rotting in the fields as the markets and supply chain is impacted.

I think our bureaucracy who can't/won't move an inch unless specifically directed to do so in writing are screwing us over by not being proactive enough. We have enough resources to simply distribute food rations for free, even vegetables for that matter (govt can buy cheap from farmers and give it away at least instead of it rotting in the fields). This is not the time to be checking ration cards and other such nonsense.

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 17 Apr 2020 19:23

CDC reviewing ‘stunning’ universal testing results from Boston homeless shelter

BOSTON — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now “actively looking into” results from universal COVID-19 testing at Pine Street Inn homeless shelter.
The broad-scale testing took place at the shelter in Boston’s South End a week and a half ago because of a small cluster of cases there. Of the 397 people tested, 146 people tested positive. Not a single one had any symptoms.

chola · Post by **chola** » 17 Apr 2020 19:40

Gerard wrote:CDC reviewing ‘stunning’ universal testing results from Boston homeless shelter
BOSTON — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now “actively looking into” results from universal COVID-19 testing at Pine Street Inn homeless shelter.
The broad-scale testing took place at the shelter in Boston’s South End a week and a half ago because of a small cluster of cases there. Of the 397 people tested, 146 people tested positive. Not a single one had any symptoms.

Homeless shelters house people who normally live outdoors and in the streets until dangerous weather forces them indoors. They dumpster dive. (Meaning they look for and eat thrownaway food from garbage cans and dumpsters.) To live like that their immune system must have been exposed to all kinds of diseases and keep on going. So being infected by a disease -- which has no symptoms for a lot of young and healthy people anyways -- might not have been much of a challenge?

pankajs · Post by **pankajs** » 17 Apr 2020 19:49

https://twitter.com/AmanKayamHai_ET/sta ... 9368142848

Aman Sharma @AmanKayamHai_ET

UP distributed 1.5 lacs MT of free rice to over 3 Crore beneficiaries of 71.62 lacs families today - it is the
highest single day distribution in India & 21.46% of total targeted distribution of UP in a single day

syam · Post by **syam** » 17 Apr 2020 20:12

Deans wrote: What is important is tests per positive case. In that respect we are up there with the best countries.

We are up there with the best countries even with total testing numbers. Till yesterday, we had done 302,956 tests. We are at 13th place in total tests done list. If we continue current trend, we are going to leap frog french by end of tomorrow.

Trikaal · Post by **Trikaal** » 17 Apr 2020 20:59

Bart S wrote:
Govt has massive amounts of food rotting in warehouses and forecast for another bumper crop and good monsoon. Govt hoards way too much food anyway, a legacy of the food scarcity of the 60s etc with little adjustments being done to policy to account for decades of economic change and the country being food-surplus. Meanwhile fruits and vegetables (I have read news articles on banana farmers and watermelon farmers in distress) are rotting in the fields as the markets and supply chain is impacted.

I think our bureaucracy who can't/won't move an inch unless specifically directed to do so in writing are screwing us over by not being proactive enough. We have enough resources to simply distribute food rations for free, even vegetables for that matter (govt can buy cheap from farmers and give it away at least instead of it rotting in the fields). This is not the time to be checking ration cards and other such nonsense.

One of the reasons for Govt being the biggest hoarder in India is the MSP policy. MSP forces govt to buy at higher rates. Then, if govt tries to sell this stock, they will have to recognize a loss on their Balance Sheets. As such, hoarding indefinitely and releasing only the minimum required amount is their solution to postpone loss recognition and hence, keep fiscal deficit artificially low.

This Covid pandemic gives them an opportunity to use up this stock and recognize it as a relief package rather than loss.