Tag: healthcare workers

Low Wages, Poor PPE: Contractual Healthcare Workers Face the Worst of the Pandemic

Similar to a large section of the unorganised working class, health workers are fatigued but are left to fend for themselves during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Several reports from different states in India have highlighted the risk that health workers have been exposed to as they treat COVID-19 patients.

These risks can be attributed to the virulence of the infection and the lack of preparedness of hospitals in dealing with the pandemic. There are several important aspects for preparedness of hospitals and these include creating isolation wards and intensive care facilities, ventilators and other supportive equipment, protocols for treatment and infection control and personal protective equipment for health personnel.

The availability of these inputs has been varied across both public and private hospitals in India. But the weakest link has been the availability of PPEs – that includes sanitisers, masks, gloves and gowns – for health workers. Shortage of such essential protective gear has affected doctors, nurses, technicians, and sanitary workers in hospitals and frontline workers in the community.

Personnel in the public and private hospitals have faced a shortage of PPEs.  Several nurses and doctors have tested positive for COVID-19 even in internationally accredited tertiary private hospitals in Mumbai and Delhi. In early April, we did not have the required machinery to stitch PPEs and had to depend on China for its supply. The PPEs imported from China fell short of the prescribed standards so they had to be dumped. A great deal of time was lost in getting the required number of PPEs because of import dependency for a range of medical equipment.

Also read: No Food, Water, Toilets: Life After Testing Positive for Delhi Health Care Workers

A significant number of doctors and nurses have already contracted COVID-19 from patients during the lockdown. This directly raises questions about the availability and accessibility of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for healthcare personnel. If PPEs are in short supply, then its availability for the lower rungs of health workers in an institutional and community setting is compromised.

While doctors and nurses were vocal in raising concern about the shortage, equally at risk of acquiring the infection were the technicians, nursing orderlies, cleaning staff and security personnel in a hospital. Although the government claims that the problem of availability has been alleviated with the production of PPEs ramped up to two lakhs per day, there have been questions about its quality and distribution.

Many nurses and doctors have reportedly had to share, and reuse their PPEs owing to limited supply, even though PPEs are made for one-time use. In Maharashtra, which has the highest number of COVID-19 cases, the shortage of PPEs at the secondary and tertiary hospitals may have possibly been alleviated, however as shared by health activists, at the primary level the shortage of PPEs continues.

The public health workforce today is highly differentiated in terms of job security, wages, entitlements and privileges owing to extensive contractualisation in the public sector. As a result, a mix of permanent, contract and outsourced workers work side by side in the same institution. The outsourced workers, owing to the temporary nature of their engagement, do not have a voice at the decision-making table and their predicament goes unheard.

Health workers dispose of medical waste in open at a government hospital, during the ongoing nationwide COVID-19 lockdown, in New Delhi, Thursday, May 14, 2020. Photo: PTI/Kamal Kishore

Since these workers are on a contract, the government is not accountable for their vulnerabilities and risk of exposure to COVID-19. What this epidemic has highlighted is the callous attitude of the government and the public towards even the doctors and nurses in hospitals. Evoking the National Disaster Management Act means that all public sector employees in hospitals are forced to work irrespective of the risks and dangers that they are exposed to. As a consequence, several private hospitals shut down when their health workers contracted the infection.

Also read: India Urgently Needs Quarantine Guidelines for Its Health Care Workers

The COVID-19 epidemic has exposed the manifold layers of vulnerability that health workers face in hospitals. Those who occupy the lower rungs in the work hierarchy face additional risks – low wages, job insecurity, poor protective measures and increased susceptibility to infection. The community-level workers like ASHAs workers face a similar predicament. They are given the task of creating awareness and identifying potential COVID-19 cases but are not being remunerated adequately for the risks that they have to face on a daily basis.

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the need for strengthening the public health systems. It is an opportunity for the Indian government to reimagine public health by increasing investments and also to correct some of the anomalies that have become entrenched.

An important aspect that requires attention is investment in human resources for health. Outsourcing, contracting, and other precarious employment mechanisms have created divides within the workforce, where one lot is privileged with access to government benefits, and others are grappling with job insecurity and poor wages.

Standing at the juncture of relaxing the lockdown, and resuming economic activity, as we move ahead dealing with COVID 19, the concerns of health care workers spanning across the hierarchy need to be addressed. The recent case where government doctors in the national capital did not receive their salaries for the last three months exemplifies the callousness of the government.

Political gimmickry is employed to ‘honour corona warriors’ while basic protective equipment is not being provided! If this is the reality for government doctors who have secure employment then one can only imagine the plight of contract workers in the health sector. Similar to a large section of the unorganised working class, health workers are fatigued but are left to fend for themselves during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rama V. Baru is a professor and Seemi Zafar is a research scholar at the Centre of Social Medicine and Community, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

The Government Must Stop Appeasing the Private Healthcare Sector

The private sector is more focused on seeking support for itself, rather than volunteering to partner with the government in dealing with a public health crisis.

The central government has shown immense ‘political will’ by imposing severe lockdown measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. While various arms of the state have been summoned to ensure that the ‘lockdown’ is successful, there seems to be no such urgency to ‘lock-in’ private hospitals to address what has been declared as a national emergency.

In a recent column, Indu Bhushan, the CEO of Ayushman Bharat, approached the private sector with kid gloves, seeking cooperation, but not requisitioning it. During this period of acute crisis, one would have thought that the central government would have been far more proactive in requisitioning the private sector to provide emergency services, rather than merely plead and urge.

The National Disaster Management Act, in fact, has provisions for the state to requisition required services to handle precisely such emergencies.  In the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, private hospitals should play an important role in dealing with the moderate and severe cases that require hospitalisation, making their ICU facilities and isolation wards available. Some state governments have in fact requisitioned private hospitals to supplement the public sector. However, the experience so far has been mixed.

The preparedness of private hospitals in dealing with the COVID-19 epidemic and the extremely variable quality of services in the poorly regulated private sector is now becoming apparent. Even internationally accredited hospitals in Mumbai and Delhi were ill-prepared to deal with the outbreak of coronavirus.

A large number of health workers in these hospitals tested positive since they did not have adequate Personal Protection Equipment (PPEs) for doctors, nurses and other staff members. Once the positive cases were identified, some of these hospitals shut down. While there are reports of a few corporate hospitals offering treatment for COVID-19 cases, this does not amount to a systemic strategy for engaging a highly differentiated private sector.

Also read: COVID-19: The Government Needs to Incentivise Private Sector Participation

The lack of PPEs affects both private and public hospitals and a large number of doctors and nurses in the latter have also tested positive. The difference, of course, has been that while private sector hospitals simply shut shop claiming inadequate capacity and capability, public sector hospitals have to plod on, exposed to all the risks. All public sector hospitals continue to provide services despite the multiple challenges and constraints they face. In several states, retired government doctors and nurses have been re-employed to meet staff shortages.

One way in which the private sector can be requisitioned to help the public sector would be through the redeployment of staff from the former to the latter. Another way in which private hospitals can step in and help would be by providing routine care and addressing special needs that arise out of the epidemic and the lockdown.

Bhushan has appealed to the private sector for its wholehearted participation in the fight against COVID-19. This was premised on the 71st round of the National Sample Survey that shows that a large section of the population is dependent on the private sector for outpatient and in-patient care. Data regarding this has been available to the government for a while now.

Hospital staff is seen outside the Special Isolation Ward set up to provide treatment to any suspected case of the coronavirus (CoV) at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, in Chennai, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020. Photo: PTI

It is surprising that such information was not used in health care planning by NITI Aayog. Or does this demonstrate a lack of communication between multiple authorities – the NITI Aayog, the Ministry of Health and the Ayushman Bharat that are addressing the COVID-19 pandemic? Is the second week into the lockdown not a little late for prescriptive suggestions from a government institution that administers a public insurance scheme?

Those administering Ayushman Bharat ought to have drawn up plans for including the private sector as part of a broader strategy of public-private partnership in the management of COVID-19. The lockdown has affected livelihoods of millions in the unorganised sector, small, medium and large businesses. They are being forced to bear the losses imposed on them by the government’s policy of a lockdown. By the same logic, the government ought to have demanded that the private sector also chip in and show its commitment to the national effort.

Also read: Why India’s Founders Championed a State-Dominated Healthcare System

In the midst of a humanitarian crisis and a national effort to address the same, the hospital committee of a premier business organisation, FICCI, and a private consulting firm, Ernst and Young, have only sought to promote the interests of the private hospital sector. The FICCI report highlights the financial distress that private hospitals face due to a drop in patient footfall.

This distress is minuscule compared to the distress of those who have lost their livelihood due to the lockdown. The demands being made include indirect tax reliefs, exemptions, waivers like recoup amounts equivalent to ineligible GST credits paid on procurements for a stipulated period; customs duty or GST exemption on essential medicines, consumables and devices for treatment of COVID patients; waiver or reduction of health cess on medical devices, extension of time under the EPCG scheme etc. income tax benefits and deferment of statutory liability payments without interest, the penalty for a stipulated period (3-6 months) and a rebate on the commercial rate of power for a stipulated period.

The private healthcare sector is more focused on seeking government support for itself, rather than volunteering to partner with the government in dealing with a public health crisis.

Rama. V. Baru and Ramila Bisht are professors at the Centre for Social Medicine and Community Health, JNU.

An Exclusively Economic Approach Cannot Negotiate the Aftereffects of the Pandemic

One of the unmistakable aspects of the pandemic is emotional trauma and our collective inability to develop social psychology necessary for regular life and more so in conditions of crisis.

While there have been rather intricate discussions on the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, there seems to be a failure to recognise that exclusive focus on the economy has been one of the causes of our inability to deal with it. The pandemic has suddenly alerted us to the social, personal, emotional and psychological dimensions of life, issues that have got waylaid because of excessive focus on growth and development.

One of the unmistakable aspects of the pandemic is emotional trauma and our collective inability to develop social psychology necessary for regular life and more so in conditions of crisis. In negotiating the aftereffects of the pandemic, we need to take into account various cultural and emotional aspects, neglecting them and pitching for yet again an exclusive economistic approach, however sensitive and good, will only further reinforce the frameworks that have disabled us.

A worker wearing a protective face mask cleans a machine inside an undergarment factory in Kolkata, April 20, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri

Psychological and emotional aspects are ‘silent killers’ just like the virus. If we do not open the pandora’s box, it could mutate to create dimensions that can be self-defeating and holds the potential of creating mass violence and difficulties for collective living. Life after the pandemic, or even the lockdown, cannot get back to the ‘normal’ merely by lifting the lockdown, just like it could not be unproblematically implemented with a four-hour notice. This kind of flattening out of complexities that overlay social life will bury the anxieties, anomie and trauma that will remain as residual effects to re-appear in more damaging forms.

Cultural sociologist Jeffrey Alexander in his book Trauma: A Social Theory points out that idealising the discourse of globalization was a trauma-response to the Cold War. In order to come out of the deadlock of the Cold War, we were compelled to imagine globalisation as a rhizomatic escape from the hardships into a wonderland of opportunities. Similarly, in order to escape the threat of the coronavirus, we might end up in a dystopia of persistent insecurity, mutual distrust and violent acquisition. The traits of which are already visible in rioting in Uttar Pradesh, cutting off the limb of a police officer in Punjab, attacks on medical and health workers, among others. These are not minor or stray incidents but a consequence of collective trauma that society is experiencing.

Two lines of enquiry

We need to open up two lines of enquiry: Why emotions got disturbed as a result of the lockdown and why are we finding ourselves ill-equipped to cope with a constrained social life due to social and physical distancing. There is a layered reality underlying the trauma we are collectively experiencing. Capitalist modernity has dislocated ensconced social life into an open life of unexpected adventures. We moved from ritualised routines to adventures of the unpredictable encounters. While this added intensity to life, it also broke the continuity into serialised moments. We began to look for meaning in intense experiences. Each moment became indispensable and non-negotiable. From a ‘way of life’ we moved to a life without pathways.

At one end of the spectrum, the response to such a context is to re-impose the traditional ways as a mode of resisting risk that came with unpredictability. Good examples of this are highlighted by Gandhi’s practice and philosophy. He organised bhajans before every public meeting, not only to convey the message of harmonious living but the form of bhajan indicated the value of repetitive activity in order for the message to become a ‘way of life ‘. It was also to equip the collective to cope with the mundane, the banal and the everyday. It was not about lofty idealism, but simple acts of everyday life that decided the potency of the act. Gandhi wished to demonstrate that life cannot be made a series of high points but ethics emerged from the slow brewing moments that are crafted unto our lives.

His use of the charkha was yet another instance of masterly symbolism to demonstrate how life needs to be slow but also create or rather ‘spin’ meaning to mundane activities. The repetitive activities of the everyday too held deep ethical and spiritual content. One cannot build mass movements without grounding them in the certainty of its everyday moral content.

As against this traditional view that has its undeniable organic relation with individual, personal and social life, the more modernist version saw this as constraining and disciplining. In contrast, critical thinker Alain Badiou argues that modern life has become inimical to the adventures of falling in love and experiencing the unexpected. There is no love without risk. There is no risk without the preparedness of having an adventure. Modernity created a chimaera of opening up avenues for adventure without making us prepared for it.

An empty shopping mall in Ahmedabad, March 16, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo

Struck both ways

Today, we as a collective are struck both ways. We are neither equipped to negotiate the silent, repetitive activities nor are we prepared for the adventures of the unexpected. As a result, we are struggling to connect to our own selves. The mundane has become trivial, while the adventure too risky. It is this no man’s land of an amoral existence that has lead to an emotional vacuum. When we are asked to stay put at homes, what could be a moment for introspection is actually leading to the trauma of facing the emptiness that always existed. We are unable to come to terms with the repetitive activities that have become a source of boredom and loneliness, while, we are not prepared for the adventures of compassion and unable to even admire the forthright work and the risk taken by health workers.

It is this cul de sac that is waiting to burst in the near future. What we need as part of the process of opening up the lockdown is to create, not an empty narrative of solidarity demonstrated in coming together to clap and light candles, but a substantive idea of negotiating the need for silence with the adventures of intense compassion.

Ajay Gudavarthy is associate professor, Centre for Political Studies, JNU.

Chennai: Family of Doctor Who Died Due to COVID-19 Not Allowed to Bury Him

The family and friends of Dr Simon Hercules were attacked by locals near a burial ground. The locals falsely believed that the dead body could lead to the spread of the virus.

Dr Simon was the managing director of New Hope Hospital in Chennai. The 55-year-old neurosurgeon has helped hundreds of patients in his lifetime, and is remembered by people around him as a person who put humanity first. But in his death, Dr Simon was denied the same by residents of the city that he served, thanks to uncontrolled rumours around the spread of COVID-19.

In fact, his family couldn’t even say a final goodbye to the doctor, who died due to COVID-19 and likely contracted the disease from patients he was caring for. “We were hit with wooden logs and stones when we tried to bury him,” says Dr Pradeep, a friend of Dr Simon, who was the person who buried the neurosurgeon in the dead of the night after hours of frightening retaliation from people who were spurred by fear, instead of empathy.

Dr Simon passed away at the Apollo Hospital in Vanagaram in Chennai on Sunday. He had been admitted in early April after exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19. Doctors who worked with him say he may have contracted the virus from a patient. At 9 pm on Sunday, his body was handed over to the family, and they were initially planning to take an ambulance to a burial ground in TB Chatram in Kilpauk for the last rites. Dr Simon’s wife and son were accompanied by Dr Pradeep, a few other doctors who had worked closely with the deceased, Corporation officials and two ambulance drivers.

The violence

“But we were told not to head to TP Chatram because a crowd of over 100 people had gathered near the burial ground in a bid to stop us,” says Dr Pradeep.

According to the police, local civic workers had informed the residents about the burial that was planned. And frightened by rumours that this could lead to the spread of the virus, people in the neighbourhood had gathered to protest.

The ambulance carrying Dr Simon’s body was then diverted to the Velangadu cemetery to avoid any altercations. However, at this burial ground, the deceased and his family and friends were met with sticks and stones.

“The JCB had dug about 6 feet into the ground, when 50-60 people came towards us,” Dr Pradeep recalls, “They began hitting us with wooden logs and throwing stones at us. They damaged the ambulance and hit the drivers on the head with logs. They hit the doctors and the sanitary inspectors as well. The deceased’s family was also not spared. The Corporation staff were forced to flee the spot,” says Dr Pradeep.

Also Read: The Coronavirus Fighters: Six Health Workers in the Combat Zone Speak to The Wire

“It was so bad, that we were forced to leave his body there and flee,” says an emotional Dr Bhagyaraj, in a video he released about the incident.

Family, friends, corporation staff…while everyone had to run to protect themselves from the angry mob, Dr Pradeep managed to get Dr Simon’s body into the ambulance with the help of two ambulance drivers. And the three of them set off with the body to get away from the people who were attacking them.

“The two ambulance drivers were bleeding profusely and were losing too much blood. After one point, they said they were feeling faint and had to stop,” says Dr Pradeep. Following this, the drivers were dropped off at Kilpauk Medical College for treatment.

A rushed burial 

“I then called all the contacts I knew in the health ministry, so that the police will protect me while we finished the burial,” says Dr Pradeep. “We went back around 11 pm to complete what we started. We had to bury him at about 8 feet – even though a deep burial is usually at about 12 feet. The police inspector who was present with us helped me dig a little more with a ploughing tool, and then with our hands we covered him with mud,” says the doctor.

“With the help of two hospital staff, I dug a space and buried my close friend by pushing in mud with my own hands. He was a doctor, a philanthropist and the managing director of a hospital. He didn’t deserve this end,” says Dr Pradeep, his voice choking.

Medical community upset

For the medical community, the violence has come as a huge shock and insult to the sacrifices made by Dr Simon. “We had to abandon his body and run away from there for Dr Pradeep to finish the last rites,” Dr Bhagyaraj, a microbiologist who was part of the group that was attacked, says in a video he released following the incidents on Sunday.

With tears in his eyes, he has put out a video where he asks, “For doctors who die of coronavirus, is this the fate? Is this the gift that people give us? I feel shameful that I need to put out this video. We were not able to save him first, and then we couldn’t even bury him. How will his soul rest in peace? I’m ashamed that I’m part of this profession now.”

While the Chennai Corporation has assured action against the residents who assaulted the group, the police have said that cases will be filed.

The two ambulance drivers meanwhile have received sutures on their heads and are being treated in the hospital of the deceased.

Doctors who knew Dr Simon describe the deceased as a hardworking man, full of integrity. He has conducted numerous surgeries and even done treatment for free for so many patients who couldn’t afford it, they recall.

“He was not shown even basic humanity,” says Dr Pradeep, his voice breaking. “Even his wife and teenage son couldn’t be there to say goodbye. What wrong did he do? He could have stayed home after the virus spread. His only fault was that he continued to serve society, and put his own health at risk to help others.”

Yes, burying and cremating bodies of COVID-19 patients is safe

The incident has brought to light the real harm being done by uncontrolled rumour-mongering around a health emergency that the world is witnessing. Doctors are rightly angry that there is not enough awareness being created around what is safe and unsafe to do with bodies of COVID-19 victims. If you come across any such rumours, this is what you need to inform people.

It is safe to bury or cremate the body of a COVID-19 victim, as long as some precautions are followed. Guidelines given by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for burial/cremation of coronavirus patients explain the different steps to be followed before burial/cremation:

Transportation

1. The body should be kept in a body bag, the exterior of which should be decontaminated. Once this is done, there is no additional risk to the people who transport the body.

2. The people handling the body should follow standard precautions that many of us are following in everyday life – this includes wearing a surgical mask and gloves.

3. The vehicle, after the transfer of the body to cremation/burial staff, should be decontaminated with 1% Sodium Hypochlorite.

Also Read: COVID-19: Structural Changes Are Needed to Address Violence Against Health Workers

At Burial ground/Crematorium

1. The crematorium/burial ground staff should be sensitised that COVID-19 does not pose any additional risk.

2. The staff should practice standard precautions of hand hygiene, use of masks and gloves.

3.  Viewing of the dead body by unzipping the face end of the body bag (by the staff using standard precautions) can be allowed, so that the family can see the deceased one last time.

4. Religious rituals such as reading from religious scripts, sprinkling holy water and any other last rites that do not require touching of the body can be allowed. However, bathing the body, kissing, hugging, etc. of the dead body should not be allowed.

5. The funeral/ burial staff and family members should perform hand hygiene after cremation/ burial.

This article was originally published on The News Minute and has been republished with permission.

‘Worried, but Sailing Through’: These Are the Parents Fighting COVID-19 on the Frontlines

In several families across India, both partners are engaged in crucial and ‘essential’ service at this time of crisis. Here is how they are managing.

“The course of true love never did run smooth”
– William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Chennai: What happens when both parents are out at work during the national lockdown? When both their services are non-negotiable and crucial to the nation?

Fifty-six-year-old Jorgina Ramesh Kumar, the nurse in-charge for the COVID-19 team at King George’s Medical University, at Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, has managed several outbreaks in her 23 years of service. In 2009, when she contracted swine flu, it was her husband Ramesh Kumar, 55, an assistant nursing superintendent at Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences who nursed her to health.

Ramesh is in charge of the 30-bed nephrology unit where he works in coordination with doctors, nurses, hospital attendants and the sanitation department. “Right now, all the beds are occupied as we have many critical patients including those of organ transplantation. We have to constantly guard them against COVID-19 as their immunity is compromised,” he said.

Ramesh Kumar, Assistant Nursing Superintendent at Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences and Jorgina Ramesh Kumar from the COVID-19 nurse team at King George’s Medical University, Lucknow believe in being equal partners. Photo: Special arrangement

Jorgina guides a team of 50 nurses and manages four COVID-19 wards. “We started getting infected patients from March 2. I ensure that nurses who come from other wards to aid me get all the moral support they need as anxiety is the last thing we need here,” said Jorgina whose team has been instrumental in the recovery of four patients.

“We have brought up our kids by sharing responsibilities equally and we discuss everything about our work. As nursing professionals, our jobs and relationship are intertwined but we ensure that they are dealt with independently. It has helped us sail through everything, together,” says Ramesh, father of two college-going daughters studying nursing and radiology.

Jorgina’s biggest support is her husband. “We leave home by 8 am and return by 6 pm. We both are punctual and ensure that we stay longer at work if required. If I am on night duty my husband ensures that I don’t have to worry about my meals. By god’s grace, we have a selfless relationship, which has given me the strength to fight this pandemic and for that matter, anything else in the world,” she said.

Also read: Arrivals Dropped 50% Post Lockdown. When Will Azadpur Mandi’s Supply Return to Normal?

Law and order, and fire

Assistant sub-inspector at the Bhubaneswar Police Commissionerate in Odisha, Pankajini Naik (45) works at the coronavirus control room. Her job involves stopping every vehicle that passes through the checkpost between 8 am and 10 pm. After due enquiry, she uses her discretion to granting an entry pass to the vehicle. Her husband, 48-year-old Bhavani Sankar Naik, a leading fireman (LFM) at the Fire Station, Bhubaneswar Secretariat, is always at the back of her mind.

Bhavani has survived several fatal incidents in his 27 years of service.

“He lost his colleague four years ago when their vehicle fell into a bridge enroute a fire rescue operation in Baripada, of Mayurbhanj district. In Khordha district, Bhavani and his rescue team were badly beaten up by locals at a fire mishap spot when they turned up late after having been stuck in a traffic jam,” recounts Pankajini.

Now, Bhavani fights the invisible virus along with fire. He disinfects coronavirus hotspots which include hospitals, quarantined houses, bus stands, parks, public shelters and rescues humans as well as animals.

The fire rescue team also delivers essential items to anyone in an emergency.

Both Bhavani Sankar Naik, a leading fireman at the Fire Station in Bhubaneswar Secretariat and Pankajini Naik, an Assistant Sub-Inspector, Bhubaneswar Police Commissionerate, Odisha are on round-the-clock duty. Photo: Special arrangement

“I wake up at 4 am daily irrespective of when I go to sleep. Every day is a mission and every call is an emergency. The fire station is my home although we have managed a rented accommodation in view of a financially stressful situation,” said Bhavani, who is a father of two. Their children are 18 and 13 years old.

With their hectic work schedule, the couple barely manages to share meals. “On most days he stays back at work and, on quite a few, I am on night duty. We are in such professions that we have experienced all kinds of days in our 20 years of marriage,” said Pankajini.

Healthcare

Dr S. Kruthika (31), a resident medical oncologist at the Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Specialty Hospital in Omandurar Government Estate delivered a baby on March 19, days before the national lockdown. Her husband, 32-year-old Dr Midhun Kumar, a COVID-19 team doctor and a cardiologist at Dr Mehta’s hospital in Chennai was ecstatic at the news. The couple was anxious as they had to keep their newborn and their four-and-a-half-year-old older son safe.

Kruthika’s elderly father, Dr Shanmuga Sundaram, a general physician had come to meet his newly born grandchild along with his wife. On March 24, the national lockdown was announced, and her father could not go back to treating his patients in Tiruttani, Tiruvallur district.

Also read: The Personal and Social Risks That India’s Food Delivery Workers Are Taking During COVID-19 

Dr Midhun also hails from a family of physicians – both his parents are doctors – and his brother Dr Dheepan Nayagam is currently treating COVID-19 patients at the Government Sivagangai Medical College and Hospital. The challenge for Dr Midhun doesn’t end at the hospital.

Once home, he has to stop his eager son from hugging him before he completes his ritual of diligent sanitisation.

Dr Midhun Kumar, a COVID-19 team doctor at the Dr Mehta’s Hospital and Dr S Kruthika, a resident medical oncologist at the Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Specialty Hospital in Omandurar Estate welcomed their newborn baby recently. Photo: Special arrangement

“We tried renting out a separate accommodation for Midhun but due to the lack of water supply, the plan couldn’t materialise. Our family friends in the medical fraternity are taking turns when it comes to childcare, while their partner is in quarantine. Some of them have been separated from their kids as they do COVID-19 duty for a week and remain quarantined in the hospital the next week. When they do manage to come home, they fear infecting their family members,” said a visibly worried Dr Kruthika.

Dr Midhun often has to rush due to midnight calls. “Last week, one patient turned positive for COVID-19 and we referred him to the Omandurar Medical College Hospital. The quality of personal protective equipment (PPE) has to improve as we are always in close contact with the patients,” he said and added that he had to take the ECG, echocardiogram and throat swabs of the patients.

“The patients are usually in the high-risk category and, of course, the novelty of the coronavirus is that you can never distinguish prima-facie between an infected and non-infected person. Back home, even if I have a mild cough, my wife panics in the other room,” said Dr Midhun.

Police and traffic

Forty-one-year-old Sarmistha Barua, the additional DCP (Police), central district police commissionerate at Guwahati, Assam, is often busy patrolling the roads. Her job is to ensure effective implementation of the lockdown. Sometimes she bumps into her husband Pranjit Borah (41), the additional DCP (Traffic).

The 2004 batch couple of the Dergaon Assam Police Training Centre is on round-the-clock duty. “We don’t reach home before midnight. Our phone conversations sustain us,” says Sarmistha.

The couple’s sons aged seven and three are taken care of by Sarmistha’s parents. “The elder one has a fairly good understanding of the pandemic but handling the younger child is a herculean task. We manage through video calls. If we are lucky, one of us gets to have breakfast with the kids.”

Pranjit Borah Additional DCP (Traffic) and Sarmistha Barua, Additional DCP (Police), Central District, Police Commissionerate, Guwahati, Assam bump into each other more on-duty than off-duty. Photo: Special arrangement

“In 12 years of marriage, we have stayed together in the same address only for 1.5 years due to postings at different places. Now we live apart under the same roof due to COVID-19,” said Sarmistha. She added that her parents, in-laws and support staff have helped her sail through the years.

Also read: A Lockdown Is a Solution. In India, a Lockdown Is Also Its Own Crisis.

The biggest challenge for both of them is to tackle those flouting the lockdown. “People don’t understand that by breaking rules, they put themselves in danger,” said Sarmistha who believes that her foremost duty lies in educating people.

Groceries

Mukhter Ah Wani and Shamema Akther, a couple from Pampore block of the Pulwama district in Jammu and Kashmir were perplexed about how people were managing to procure food supplies. The two, who are vegetable vendors, used to earn Rs 5,000 a month but since the lockdown, they are happy to even see any of their existing customers pass them by.

The couple share their roof with Mukhter’s brother and his spouse. “My brother works as a labourer, so we are solely dependent on selling vegetables. For us, the threat from coronavirus is still far-fetched, but dying from poverty is much closer. We wake up at 5 am everyday to buy vegetables from a wholesale vehicle that comes from Srinagar. While at work, we make it a point to wear masks and wash our hands frequently. People are terrified of this virus, indeed,” said Mukhter.

Mukhter Ah Wani and Shamema Akther, the vegetable vendor couple from Pampore block, Pulwama district in Jammu and Kashmir wait for takers under the lockdown. Photo: Special arrangement

Mukhter had previously tried his hand at the textile business but returned to being a vegetable vendor in a shack right next to his house. With hardly any takers, the couple has resorted to selling only onions and potatoes.

Pharmacy

Thirty-nine-year-old K. Gayathri is the pharmacist-in-charge at the KIMS Saveera Super Specialty Hospital, Anantapur district, Andhra Pradesh. Her husband G. Surendra (47), also a pharmacist, recently shifted to a separate accommodation near his workplace – the Government Area Hospital, Kadiri, 95 kilometres away from her place – due to the increased workload, long commute and the constant fear of infecting his family. They have been in the profession for over 20 years.

G.Surendra, a pharmacist at the Kadiri Government Area Hospital and K.Gayathri, pharmacist-in-charge at the KIMS Saveera Super Specialty Hospital in Anantapur district, Andhra Pradesh are at the frontlines of India’s healthcare delivery. Photo: Special arrangement

“We maintain social distancing and ensure people just drop off their prescriptions and leave with their needs fulfilled at the earliest. We provide the basic information and comfort that everyone seeks. My work lingers from 10 am to 8 pm and, at times, stretches beyond. With our incessant work and occasional night duties, leaves are out of sight,” said Gayathri who manages a team of 12 pharmacists and is also a mother of two kids aged 15 and nine.

COVID-19 demands that apart from dispensing medicines, overseeing indents and managing inventories, Surendra has to pack medication for at least 40-80 persons every day. “I get a daily list of drugs to be packaged to be given to outreach workers who then distribute it to patients in their homes and primary health centres – each box includes antiretroviral drugs, iron tablets, paracetamol, among others.”

Sanitation

Every morning at 6 am, 40-year-old Aandal trudges her cart through the Sholavandan town panchayat, Madurai, Tamil Nadu and collects trash from 150 houses along with her husband Maarisamy (45), who also cleans ditches at the street ends. They have been married for 18 years and have been engaged in sanitation work for over 15 years.

Also read: COVID-19: 10 Ways We Can Minimise Health and Safety Risks for Sanitation Workers

They have two daughters aged 17 and 15. Their work is never-ending. “We do two shifts per day – 6 am to 10 am and 11 am to 2 pm. The single shift on Sunday is our only respite as we cannot afford a single day leave even if we are sick as our salary gets deducted,” says Aandal.

Aandal and Maarisamy, sanitation workers from the Sholavandan Town Panchayat, Madurai, Tamil Nadu have been consistently doing their service for over 15 years. Photo: Special arrangement

“Our work is crucial now and cleanliness is the key to fighting this disease. We earn our livelihood by keeping the streets of Madurai clean so people won’t panic,” said Aandal.

Banking

Haseena Syed (34) is a single parent and the customer associate at State Bank of India, Neelankarai branch in Chennai and goes to work every day leaving her eight-year-old daughter with her 60-year-old parents.

“The major work in the bank right now is cash withdrawal and deposit. But it is common knowledge now that currency notes can be a source of infection. While earlier, we used to come on alternate days, since April 1 we have been working in our usual work slot, six days a week from 10 am to 4 pm except our offs on second and fourth Saturdays,” says Haseena.

Haseena Syed, a single parent and customer associate at the State Bank Of India, Neelangarai branch, Chennai is a one-woman-army banker. Photo: Special arrangement

“Why do we need to use the cash deposit machines when the bank employees are there?”, “Why do we need a mask when we are maintaining distance?” and “Why should we use the hand-sanitiser kept in the bank when we just came from home?” are some of the most frequently asked questions by her customers.

Every day, Haseena has to convince her daughter Sana who quips, “Amma, all parents are home. Why don’t you just quit your job or take leave?” or reason with her brother in Dubai – “Please quit this job as your health is the main concern for us and finances can be managed.”

“I have worked hard to get a job in a nationalised bank and I want to sustain my independence,” said Haseena who requests people to use digital banking as much as they can and be considerate towards bankers.

Nalini Ravichandran is an independent journalist who has worked with The New Indian Express and Mail Today and reported extensively on health, education, child rights, environment and socio-economic issues of the marginalised. She is an alumna of the Asian College of Journalism.

The Post-COVID World: Dragging the State Back Into Public Services

There is no automatic return to neo-liberal normalcy or US hegemony after the virus has worked its way through world politics.

The health crisis caused by COVID-19 has devastated the lives and livelihoods of working people, especially peasants and working classes. The grinding halt to economic activity will haunt them for a long-time to come. In the post-COVID world, wage-earners, many of whom are currently seen as heroic ‘key workers’, may find it increasingly difficult to survive in a Darwinian dystopia in which ‘markets’, banks and corporations once again grasp maximum relief packages showered upon them by governments the world over with scarcely a debate over who is to pay the bill.

Corporate-dominated states are already in action to help the privateers and rentiers to re-emerge from the health tsunami with renewed neo-liberal vigour, parading as the saviours of mankind.

But they face significant political and moral barriers to returning to pre-COVID ‘normalcy’. Workers are on the move with newfound popular recognition and the state has been forced to act to support working people.

The political terrain has shifted. The struggle has just begun for the political, moral and philosophical contours of the post-COVID world. There is no automatic return to neo-liberal normalcy or US hegemony after the virus has worked its way through world politics.

Also Read: What Else Can the World’s Billionaires Do?

Corporate welfare

Adopting the 2008 bailout template, the US Congress has cleared a $1 trillion stimulus package that will largely be funded by American taxpayers who, in the past week, have swelled lines at food banks and unemployment offices. The plan is to add $4 trillion to the national debt to provide liquidity to the corporates. Following the lead of a failing American state, most of the global decision-making elite, afflicted with herd immunity from human empathy and locked into the logic of big money, is unveiling bailouts for the very richest, corporate welfare on a planetary scale.

Conveniently ignored in the zest to feed corporate greed is that the ‘bailout’ process accelerates already-mounting global debt caused by slower growth rates. The sudden rush to expand the money supply to fund credit, ostensibly to mitigate the economic shock caused by COVID-19, is likely to push the world to the precipice of a debt crisis.

Even before the full outbreak of the COVID-19 health crisis, the World Bank had warned that the world economy was in the midst of its fourth global wave of debt. The total worldwide debt was close to a record $253 trillion by the end of September 2019. This is likely to shoot up many notches due to pandemic-related borrowing by governments, non-financial corporates, and individuals, in an environment of low-interest rates. The profligacy will catapult the debt to a level equivalent to five or more times global economic output.

Donald Trump delivers remarks during a campaign rally at the Giant Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania, US, December 10, 2019. Photo: Reuters/Tom Brenner

They are sowing the seeds for a dangerous economic crisis that will hit the weaker sections the hardest.

The previous three waves, over the past fifty years, caused severe financial crises: the fourth one is expected to be even more lethal. Sooner or later the global financial order is likely to come crashing down.

The global elite with their vast knowledge networks in state bureaucracies, academia and media, fear and try to marginalise alternative solutions. They swamp all the media space through a swarming operation that drowns the few voices that offer people-oriented solutions to tackle the unprecedented crisis. For example, proposals for imposing higher taxes on the rich, and spending more on health, education, and welfare are immediately shot down as impractical or utopian.

Corporate kingpins understand well that the measures being adopted to tackle the situation will generate more poverty and inequality. We are at a stage where many poor, emerging economies and even developed countries are likely to witness mass unemployment and even face food riots. In order to prevent any threats to the well-being of the super-rich, ‘gentlemanly capitalism’ is using the crisis-as-opportunity to metamorphose into ‘surveillance capitalism’ employing fourth-industrial-revolution tools to curtail civil-liberties and assault people’s privacy using artificial intelligence techniques.

The gravity of the threat posed by the viral-disease is being exploited to build a consensus in the society to invite an authoritarian state legally authorised to use surveillance at will. Civil libertarians like Glenn Greenwald, the winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for exposing Edward Snowden’s revelations about the secret infrastructure of US government surveillance are, reluctantly, willing to accept intrusive surveillance given the gravity of the current emergency.

Right-wing populist states are not lagging behind in using the opportunity to push their parochial elitist-authoritarian agenda. Hungary has set the ball rolling by enabling Prime Minister Viktor Orban to rule by decree indefinitely. More so-called democratic rulers are likely to join the herd.

Global geopolitical schizophrenia

On the geopolitical front, some analysts suggest that Sino-US relations will improve if for no other reason than the decline of the dollar. America’s national debt of $25 trillion may force its elite to appease China. According to some experts, the economic slowdown and the associated stimulus package will allow the de-dollarisation process to gain accelerated momentum. According to a tweet by Roy Sebag “With US dollar interest rates now officially at zero, today marks the end of the fiat dollar experiment which began in 1971. The path from this point to a gold standard is much shorter than most realize.”

A return to postwar gold standard arrangements may force the US to accommodate countries with substantial gold reserves, like Russia, China, Britain, and a few others, in a multi-lateral arrangement for managing the international financial order. What the new order will entail for the small and medium nations, including countries like Brazil and India, is difficult to predict but it is clear that the ensuing new international economic order is not likely to provide them enough leg-room to exercise both strategic autonomy and economic autarky.

Also Read: COVID-19: Can We Push Pharma Innovation Without Giving Away Pricey Patents?

But the re-election to a second term for President Trump would likely muddy the waters: can anyone envisage his standing down on what is the settled US position on China? That is, the subordination of China, in Trump’s case through a trade war? Whatever the specifics, Sino-US relations are going to remain turbulent for many years ahead. The imperative of economic renewal and the desire to maintain military primacy may ensure a competitive-cooperative schizophrenic relationship between the superpower and the Middle Kingdom.

As Antonio Gramsci noted long ago, when an old order is dying and a new one cannot be born, the world becomes a more dangerous place. Yet, deep interdependencies remain, tempering the tendency towards fundamental, irreconcilable antagonism.

Barricades on the Delhi-Ghaziabad border after lockdown was imposed in New Delhi, March 23, 2020. Photo: PTI/Arun Sharma

W(h)ither the Left?

One cannot blame neoliberals alone for luring us to jump into the well of corporate-driven austerity. The lethargy of left intellectualism, and the compromises of the institutionalised left parties with the establishment, are equally to blame for the current state of affairs. Steeped in the status quo, left parties have failed to engage in the politics of the street or of class conflict. Left intellectuals have failed to imagine the future and communicate alternatives to the masses.

The Left has been almost exclusively embroiled in the dead-end politics of identity rather than focusing on fundamental economic concerns of the workers and toilers, regardless of ethnicity, religion or gender. The notable exceptions of Jeremy Corbyn in Britain and Bernie Sanders in the US indicate how tenacious a hold identity politics – largely led by affluent sections of minority groups and embedded in establishment politics – has on liberal democracies.

In addition, an obsession with protecting individual privacy from technological intrusions has meant failure to visualize technological tools as weapons for radical change. Marx never fought against the intrusion of technology into factory space. Marx and Engels imagined using the tools of the industrial revolution (the means of production) to advance the rule of the working classes.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us a trailer of life in the technology-driven future world. It projects a Goldman-Sachs-esque future of home working for the managerial and professional classes, and a drive to further automate jobs in essential services – nurses, doctors, delivery drivers, and shop-workers. The rich of course will enjoy their lives through greater social-distancing with the lower classes and where ever needed, legitimise social ostracisation. The left will have to come out of the identity and civil-liberties trap to carve a new manifesto for the masses confronting the fourth industrial revolution.

The political terrain has shifted

But if there’s one thing that the COVID-19 pandemic has illuminated with unerring clarity, it is that there is massive public support and sympathy for key workers everywhere. The starving of funds for our public services, especially healthcare, is revealed in all its horror – at both the rates of infection and mortality, and the sight of frontline health workers battling a deadly disease without masks, gloves and other protective equipment.

That another global pandemic will happen again, along with a growing global consciousness of the horrors of climate change, and the popularly-forced allocation of massive funding for the public sector has led to the definite ‘return of the state’.

But the corporate-dominated neoliberal state has not come back willingly. It has had to be dragged back by overwhelming popular demand and elite fears of social and political upheavals.

Keynes and social democracy may not necessarily be back but the moral and material authority of the corporation, the mythical heroic entrepreneur, and the market, has disintegrated.

The political and moral terrain of national and world politics has shifted.

Inderjeet Parmar is professor of international politics at City, University of London, a visiting professor at LSE IDEAS (the LSE’s foreign policy think tank), and visiting fellow at the Rothermere American Institute at the University of Oxford.

Dr Atul Bhardwaj is an honorary research fellow in the department of international politics at City, University of London. He is the author of India-America Relations (1942-62): Rooted in the Liberal International Order, US-India Relations: 1942-1962 (Routledge, 2018)

From Beating Pots and Pans to Beating Doctors, Coronavirus Fight Takes Bizarre Turn

In two separate incidents on Wednesday – one in Bhopal and the other in Delhi – doctors were accused of “spreading coronavirus” and violently attacked for carrying out their jobs.

New Delhi: Days after the country applauded the efforts of healthcare professionals and workers by ringing bells and banging pots and pans, in two separate incidents – one in Bhopal and the other in Delhi – doctors were accused of “spreading coronavirus” and violently attacked for carrying out their jobs.

In Delhi, a 42-year-old man has been arrested after he allegedly accused two female resident doctors at Safdarjung Hospital of spreading coronavirus and assaulted them. The two doctors, posted in the Emergency department of the hospital, were not dealing with COVID-19 patients.

Incidentally, Delhi is one of the worst-affected states with 669 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and nine deaths so far.

According to the hospital Residents Doctor’s Association, the incident took place at Gulmohar Enclave where the two doctors had gone to buy fruits and vegetables at around 9:30 pm on Wednesday. The enclave is only a short distance away from Gautam Nagar, where the two resided.

In her complaint to the police, one of the doctors said that she had gone to the market with her sister when the accused accosted them.

First, the man accused the two doctors of spreading coronavirus. The RDA president, Manish, told a news agency that “a local resident, who was in the vicinity, asked them to stay away from the fruit stall, saying you doctors bring infection from the hospital and spread it here.”

Without any provocation, the middle-aged man also began talking about the need for social distancing and how it was because of such doctors that residential areas now faced a greater risk of the virus.

When the doctors replied by saying that such charges were misplaced and that they knew the importance of social distancing, the accused began abusing at them and allegedly twisted their hands, pushed them and fled.

The Hauz Khas police have registered a case on the complaint by one of the doctors. It said the accused was subsequently identified and arrested. The police have also medically examined both the victims after they charged that the accused had also touched one of them inappropriately. Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Atul Kumar Thakur told the media, “we have registered a case and arrested the accused in connection with the incident”.

Also read: India Needs an Urgent Law to Protect All Health Workers From Violence

In Bhopal, two PG residents from the Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences Bhopal (AIIMS Bhopal) were assaulted by police officials in the evening on Wednesday, as they were on their way back home from the hospital.

“I was going back home after my emergency duty was over when I was stopped on my way home. I was with another doctor when they [police officials] stopped us right outside the hospital campus,” said Dr Rituparna Jana and added that despite showing their identification cards, the police asked the two why they were roaming around outside if they were doctors.

“The police then threw our belongings away and said that it was doctors like us who were spreading the coronavirus,” said Rituparna and added that the police then beat her and the doctor accompanying her with lathis. She said that she has since lodged complaints about the incident.

The Resident Doctor’s Association at AIIMS Bhopal has written to the director of AIIMS Bhopal condemning “the atrocity and brutality by the police against resident doctors of AIIMS Bhopal”.

The incident in Bhopal comes close on the heels of another occurrence when two women doctors were injured when a team of health officials in Indore was pelted with stones while they were trying to trace a person who had come into contact with a COVID-19 patient.

The incidents have occurred even though several senior politicians, including the Union home minister Amit Shah, health minister Harsh Vardhan and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, had last month stressed on the importance of not harassing doctors and nurses who were at the forefront of the fight against coronavirus.

After several doctors and nurses complained about facing harassment at the hands of their landlords and neighbours, Amit Shah had urged the Delhi police commissioner to take strict action against people who were harassing those treating COVID-19 patients and asking doctors to vacate their residences. Harsh Vardhan had also raised the issue of how doctors and paramedics combating the virus spread were being “ostracised in residential complexes and societies”.

Referring to how doctors, nurses and even pilots and air hostesses were being harassed, Kejriwal had said: “This is not right. These people are risking their lives for us and we are behaving in this way. We should change this mindset.”

A global pattern emerges

As countries across the world grapple with the spread of the novel coronavirus, attacks against doctors and healthcare workers have cropped up. In Mexico, state authorities have arranged special buses for nurses and a hospital in the country’s second-largest city has asked medical personnel to don civilian clothes on their way to and from work after some public buses refused to allow healthcare workers to board them.

Last week, a nurse in Chicago said that she was punched in the face on a bus on her way home after her shift at a local hospital ended. The man who attacked her accused her of coughing on him to infect him with the coronavirus.

In Philippines, after reports of assaults against healthcare workers and professionals came to the fore, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered police officials to protect health workers.

Bihar: Paramedic Working at COVID-19 Isolation Ward Assaulted by Neighbours

‘I was told by my neighbours that I had brought the infection from the hospital.’

Begusarai: A paramedic working at an isolation ward of a hospital here has alleged that she was physically assaulted by her neighbours who said they would be infected with coronavirus if she enters her house using a gate adjacent to theirs, police said.

The complainant, Neelu Kumari, is married to Amulya Singh, a resident of Meerganj locality in the Town police station area of the district, and she works at the Begusarai Sadar Hospital as an auxiliary nurse-midwife.

Town police station SHO Amarendra Kumar Jha said she has lodged an FIR against her neighbours including a former ward councillor and two women.

He said the complainant, who has been attached to the hospital’s isolation ward, has alleged that she was stopped from entering her home through the back gate which she was doing as a precautionary measure by her neighbours.

“I was told by my neighbours that I had brought the infection from the hospital and if I had to enter my house I must do so from the front gate and not the one that is adjacent to theirs.

“They also said that water spilled out on the streets when I took bath which increased their risk of getting infected with coronavirus,” the woman told reporters indignantly.

The SHO said the accused have denied the allegations and claimed that it was a “trivial dispute”.

An investigation has been initiated and further action will be taken as per the findings, he added.

Fake WhatsApp Videos Behind Attack on Health Workers in Indore: Report

A resident of Tatapatti Bakhal said residents were suspicious of health workers after fake videos started doing the rounds.

New Delhi: Fake videos that claimed that Muslims were being injected with coronavirus had been circulating through WhatsApp in Indore, where residents of a particular neighbourhood attacked a team of health workers on Wednesday.

An Indian Express report dated April 3 stated that that the fake videos may have been behind the attack, for which four people have been booked under National Security Act.

“Fake WhatsApp videos claiming that healthy Muslims are being taken away and injected with the virus have been doing the rounds of Tatpatti Bakhal and adjoining localities,” said the article.

The team of doctors, ASHA workers and revenue officials had gone to identify the family members of a 65-year-old man who died after having been infected with the coronavirus. 

Also read: Madhya Pradesh: Two Doctors Hurt in Stone Pelting During Coronavirus Tracking

“They were cooperating in the beginning and answered a few questions before suddenly attacking us,” a member of the help team recounted to the Express.

A resident of Tatpatti Bakhal stated that the residents were suspicious of health workers after fake videos started doing the rounds.

With more than 75 COVID-19 cases reported in the city between March 24 and April 2, Indore in Madhya Pradesh has become the latest cause of worry for authorities.

Till now, police have arrested four people for the attack on the team and charged them under NSA. Earlier, the chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan had stated that those stopping doctors from their duty “will be strictly dealt with”.

More than 75 positive cases have been reported in Indore between March 24 and April 10 – most of them from 10 localities identified as Ranipura, Nayapura, Khajrana, Tatpatti Bakhal, Daulatganj and Silawatpura.

The surge in new cases were mostly in families whose members had reported positive. “In that sense the threat is limited to few localities,” said divisional commissioner Akash Tripathi. 

He stated that the source of the infection was probably someone who had travelled to Dubai. The only international flight taking off from Madhya Pradesh flies between Indore and Dubai, as per the report.

Madhya Pradesh: Two Doctors Hurt in Stone Pelting During Coronavirus Tracking

The incident occurred in Taat Patti Bakhal area when a team of five was trying to find out the whereabouts of a person.

Indore: Two women doctors were injured on Wednesday in Indore when a team of health officials was pelted with stones while they were trying to trace a person who had come into contact with a COVID-19 patient earlier, police said.

The incident occurred in Taat Patti Bakhal area when the team of five was trying to find out the whereabouts of the person.

A woman doctor said they were rescued by police personnel.

“The moment we started enquiring about that particular person’s health, people started protesting and later some of them hurled stones. We were saved by police personnel,” she said.

Meanwhile, terming the incident as very unfortunate, Indore chief medical and health officer (CMHO) Dr. Pravin Jadia confirmed that the medical personnel was working to protect people from the coronavirus infection but they were pelted with stones.

“Two women doctors suffered injuries on their legs in the incident. They somehow protected themselves by hiding inside the vehicle of tehsildar,” the CMHO said.

A case has been registered at Chhatripura police station.

A police official said that protesters also broke barricades.