Against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic which has led to the government announcing the 21-day lockdown (which is like a government enforced bandh) across India; it has also exposed the state of health unpreparedness. As India prepares to stop the spread of COVID 19, the latest figure has shot up to 1071 confirmed cases and 29 deaths as on March 30,2020. The lockdown may have its objective but the most crucial lies in the health response. Nowhere is the state of unpreparedness in India more glaring than in the number of medical doctors, facilities and beds. India, with a population of 130 crore has only 0.8 doctor and 0.7 hospital bed per 1,000 persons. On the other hand, China with a population of 138 crore has 1.8 doctors and 4.34 beds per 1,000 persons. Italy, which has surpassed China in the number of deaths (11,591 as against China’s 3,304), has 4.1 doctors and 3.4 hospital beds per 1,000 persons. Italy, with a population of a little over six crore, has almost five times the number of doctors as that of India and also almost five times the number of beds. Spain, with a population of 4.6 crore has surpassed China in Coronavirus toll with 85,195 confirmed as positive and 7340 deaths. Spain has 4.07 doctors and 2.97 beds per 1000 people. With such a meagre number of beds and severely acute shortage of doctors, India could face a health catastrophe if the coronavirus passes from the present Stage 2(direct contact transmission) to Stage 3( community transmission). Leaving aside life saving medicines which are disappearing due to panic buying and slowdown in manufacturing due to complete lockdown; there is also a crisis with regard to the much-needed ventilators. It has been estimated, that currently, India has a total of around 40,000 ventilators at both government and private health institutes and hospitals. According to assessment made by health institutes, India will require at least 40 lakh ventilators if the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread and passes on to Stage 3. India which now has around 0.7 bed per 1000 persons will require 2.7 beds per 1000 persons urgently in order to prepare the eventually of the virus infecting more people in the coming weeks. The scenario may be understood in the context of the USA which today has 1,45,542 confirmed cases and 2616 deaths. In India hardly 30,000 people’s blood samples have been tested while in the USA nearly two lakh have had blood test done. Even with the best of facilities and with more doctors and beds, the health care system in the USA is almost at a bursting point. Experts in the United States, where the ratio of ICU beds was reckoned to be more than six times higher, are warning that it will soon run out of ICU beds too. Of concern in India is that the government, both past and present, have never really cared to improve the health care system. The government’s outlay on health amounts to little more than one percent of the country’s GDP—far below the global average. Instead of investing in the public healthcare system, the government consistently chose exorbitant public-private partnerships with private health providers. Again, the government is spending much needed fund to promote Ayurveda which, though globally acknowledged, is not on the same page as allopathy when it comes to combating virulent diseases. The fact is, the virus has overwhelmed some of the most developed health systems in the world. India has one of the worst ones.