The scale and spread of Covid 19 is unprecedented and no country can truthfully claim to have the wherewithal to handle this pandemic. In the Indian democratic approach, public health system has not got the required attention from the government, both in terms of funding and infrastructure. Hence it not fair to expect the public health system to support such a pandemic. Whereas, private health care hospitals have flourished, especially in urban areas, riding on the wealthy few and the modern insurance system, where huge and often inflated bills ,have no adverse bearing on the patient.
In our context, full use of government hospitals and armed & paramilitary medical assets can contribute significantly to such a crisis both in terms of scale and quality. Several other governmental organisations like railways, HAL etc have healthcare facilities which can be brought directly under government control. It is absolutely necessary to make it legally binding for private hospitals and doctors to function under the government whenever there is a calamity, with compensation as decided by the state. This will need a strong hierarchy established under the health ministry to enforce the will of the government through laid down operating procedures.
In short, do all that we need to do int he health sector when at war.