COVID-19 Pandemic and Medical Education in India

Abstract

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, also known as SARS-CoV-2, was the coronavirus strain that caused the COVID-19 disease. The COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as the greatest public health and societal challenge. Imposition of a prolonged-nationwide lockdown as a public health intervention in India to contain transmission impacted all public spheres, including medical education. Academic activities in medical schools came to an abrupt suspension during the lockdown for a period of 10 to 12 weeks. During earlier pandemics, in-person training in hospitals continue in developing the students’ skills and competencies. These include the diagnosis and management of hospital cases and control the communitydisease transmission. However, the current COVID-19 pandemic is distinct. Online training started due to extended lockdown, which require careful planning and further study. Key words: • COVID-19 • Corona virus • Pandemic • Medical education • Medical students • Physician training • Clinical training • Disease transmission • Clinical skills • India Copyright © 2021 Ahmed. Published by Global Health and Education Projects, Inc. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in this journal, is properly cited.