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New Delhi: Popularly known for his pioneering role in making India polio free two decades ago, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has a mammoth task on his hands.

He is sitting on one of the most crucial portfolios right now as the country grapples with a lockdown to stall the spread of Covid-19, a pandemic that has wreaked havoc across the globe. In India, the number of active cases has crossed 6,000.

An ENT specialist and a Member of Parliament from Delhi’s Chandni Chowk, Dr Harshvardhan is known as a hands-on boss. This is coming in handy as he works closely with key people including Ms Preeti Sudan, Health Secretary, Dr Rajiv Garg, Director-General Health Services, Dr Balram Bhargava, Director-General of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and V.G. Somani, Drugs Controller General of India.

While he is not seen holding his otherwise daily press conferences, he is working behind the scenes in coordinating with states, arranging essential supplies, checking preparedness levels and updating national strategies.

Here is what one day in the life of a health minister during this most challenging time looks like, a day that was otherwise a gazetted holiday.

Also read: Juggling e-files & family — how WFH, Covid-19 changed life for govt’s science, tech officers

On Good Friday

Known to be an accessible minister, even to the general public, Dr Harsh Vardhan usually meets people at his home every morning for a brief while during his “Janta Darbar”. He listens to, and tries to solve, their day-to-day problems related to his ministry and the medical fraternity.

However, these days are different. He is unable to hold these gatherings due to the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown. He is also unable to go for his daily morning walk. While he is skipping several of his daily activities, he never leaves his home without offering prayers to the Gods, come what may. He did the same this Friday.

At around 8 am on Good Friday, Dr Harsh Vardhan left home for his office, which is just 5-7 minutes away.

Once there, he accessed the Zoom app on his desktop to attend a live session of the virtual ‘breakfast session’ organised by BJPs General Secretary Ram Madhav on India’s response to Covid-19.

At 9 am, he addressed ambassadors and diplomatic officials from 50 countries via a video conference, after which he signed a few essential files waiting for his approval. The minister then took a short break to run through the latest Covid-19 numbers in India and grabbed a bunch of newspapers to look through the headlines. By then, he was ready for the strategic meeting with his core group.

This meeting happens daily with Preeti Sudan, secretary at the Ministry of Health headquarters alongwith Dr. Raman Gangakhedkar, chief scientist at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Vandana Gurnani, additional secretary and Sanjeev Kumar, special secretary, both in the Ministry of Health. The purpose of the meeting is to take daily stock of and review the strategy of handling the disease.

By 12 noon, he was ready for another video conference with state health ministers and health secretaries to assess the spread of the infection across India. This call lasted for around three hours.

While Maharastra’s Health Minister Rajesh Tope raised the issue of shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and test kits, Rajasthan’s Health Minister Raghu Sharma spoke about granting permission to HIV testing labs under NACO to test for Covid-19.

An associate of Dr Harsh Varshan told ThePrint, “The minister spends the entire day in managing PPEs, test kits, consulting research scientists, laboratories, diagnostic companies and leading doctors for overseeing different protocols. He chairs at least five to seven meetings every day and leaves office near midnight, around 11 pm.”

Another old associate says the minister “only takes a break for lunch. He only eats homemade food. Due to his hectic work schedule, he has to forgo his daily walk about which he is very particular. To complete his daily footsteps, he has started walking more in the office now.”

Dr Harsh Vardhan has been visiting hospitals in and around Delhi to check their preparedness. Also, he connects with patients through video conferencing on a weekly basis. He also holds video conferences with coronavirus patients, for instance, those admitted at Safdarjung hospitals, to check on them and their satisfaction with the treatment at isolation wards.

On Thursday he chaired a review meeting of a group of ministers (GoM) meeting, which included Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai and Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers as well as Shipping, Mansukh Mandavia.

He also addressed a conference of experts in Bennett University, where he reiterated the values of social distancing and the ongoing lockdown. “They are the most potent social vaccines to combat the coronavirus outbreak,” he said. He also held a meeting with Red Cross officials to address the shortage of blood in the country.

Dr Harsh Vardhan is the contact person for all queries coming directly from Prime Minister Narendra Modi or his office. Further, he chats once or twice daily with representatives of the World Health Organisation to understand the Indian and global evolution of the disease.

He also heads a group on medical capacity building, which also includes Dr Randeep Guleria, Director, AIIMS and Renu Swarup, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, among other top officials of the health ministry. “These days he leaves office by 11 pm. Generally, he sits with his family for a while before catching on some sleep. At most, we have also worked with him till 2 in the morning and again starting at 9 am the next day. However, his energy levels never sink,” says a ministry official.

Also read: What will schools do after 14 April? HRD minister to speak to states and decide

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