The lack of high-speed internet has resulted in health professionals getting unduly delayed in accessing important guidelines and updates on COVID-19.
New Delhi: On the same day when news that the government had restored high-speed 4G internet in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh turned out to be false, healthcare providers and legal experts in the region wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting access to internet that could potentially help them treat COVID-19 patients better.
A 65-year-old man hailing from Hyderpora area of Srinagar died on Thursday, the first fatality in Jammu and Kashmir due to coronavirus.
The lack of high-speed internet has resulted in health professionals getting unduly delayed in accessing important guidelines and updates on COVID-19.
With news and breakthroughs in the treatment of COVID-19 changing rapidly, it is not just medical guidelines and updates that the doctors lose out on accessing but also “the latest guidelines and breakthroughs issued by the Government of India, the World Health Organisation (WHO) regarding testing and treatment for people suspected of being exposed to the virus or who are infected with the virus,” they write.
On March 20, The Wire had reported on the acute problems being faced by medical practitioners thanks to slow internet availability in the region even at a time of acute health crisis.
