Tag: India

With hospitals already severely stretched, coronavirus-hit India is now bracing for the monsoon and its deadly annual onslaught of mosquito-borne illnesses, with an overwhelmed army of public health workers the only defence.

Every year illnesses such as dengue fever and malaria infect more than half a million people and kill hundreds in India as the monsoon brings much-needed rain but also devastation and disease.

With more than three decades of experience as a doctor in India’s chronically underfunded public healthcare system, Vidya Thakur – medical superintendent at Mumbai’s Rajawadi Hospital – is used to managing “heavy burdens”.

But now, she says, “COVID-19 has left us helpless… and the monsoon will make things even more difficult”.

Every bit of space at the 580-bed state-run hospital where she works is already devoted to dealing with the pandemic. Beds crowd corridors, storage rooms function as wards and staff are overworked.

At Mumbai’s massive Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital, better known as Sion, undergraduates have been drafted into service, medical resident Shariva Ranadive told AFP.

Many experienced doctors and nurses are staying on the sidelines because they are vulnerable to the virus due to their age or pre-existing conditions such as diabetes.

“Everyone is working constantly… we are overwhelmed,” Thakur told AFP.

And now with the monsoon has arrived in Mumbai on its months-long journey northwards, she is readying for the usual rush of seasonal ailments.

A particular problem is that many season illnesses have symptoms that are virtually indistinguishable from coronavirus, such as fever, breathing difficulties and loss of appetite.

This means more testing, more isolation beds and more protective equipment will be needed to ensure that patients are diagnosed correctly and not exposed to coronavirus too.

“We will need to treat everyone as if they were a COVID-19 patient,” said Thakur. “Every precaution will have to be taken.”

Delayed efforts, double shifts

Healthcare workers are not the only ones battling exhaustion.

A months-long lockdown to prevent the epidemic from spreading left Mumbai with an acute shortage of sanitation workers.

Thousands of public health workers who fumigate neighbourhoods to kill disease-carrying mosquitoes had to delay those crucial efforts for two months to focus on sanitation instead.

“Many of our men are doing double shifts, working 14 hours straight,” said Rajan Naringrekar, the head of the city’s insecticide department.

With nearly 60,000 infections, Mumbai accounts for around a fifth of India’s coronavirus cases.

As teams fumigated a slum and cleared out stagnant water – a potent breeding ground for mosquitoes – from sagging tarpaulin roofs, storage bins and bottles, Naringrekar told AFP many of them were afraid of contracting the virus.

The risks will increase exponentially with the rains, with workers required to inspect homes and offices in case of a dengue outbreak.

“We are obviously worried but we have to do our job and take as many precautions as we can,” he said, pointing to the gloves and masks worn by the workers.

Monsoon trauma

Their fears are shared by millions living in slums across India, who say their homes offer little protection against coronavirus or other diseases.

For Mumtaz Kanojia, who lives in a small one-room house with her son and daughter, the memory of her bone-chilling three-week-long bout with malaria still haunts her 10 years on.

“My daughter and I were severely ill, we had a fever, we couldn’t eat anything. She even fainted at one point,” the 53-year-old told AFP.

Kanojia is already fearful of contracting coronavirus, and the onset of the monsoon prompts further dread – of flooding outside her front door, a leaking ceiling, contaminated drinking water and deadly diseases.

“The water gets everywhere… and the mosquitoes follow,” she said, adding that she and her neighbours had little choice but to use tarpaulins as makeshift coverings despite the risk they could become breeding grounds.

“Without it, the roof leaks every time there’s a heavy downpour,” she said.

“Each time, we have to take care of it ourselves. No one from the government ever comes to help.”

Source: france24.com

Malls and temples re-opened in several cities across India on Monday despite the country recording a record daily number of new Coronavirus infections, with the pandemic expected to ravage the country for weeks to come.

After a 10-week lockdown the government has risked lifting some restrictions in a bid to ease the devastating blow to the economy dealt by the Coronavirus.

But the number of new cases rose by 9,983 to 256,611, according to government figures announced Monday, putting the country of 1.3 billion on course to overtake Britain and Spain among nations with the highest number of infections.

The reported death toll of 7,135 is much lower than reported in other badly-hit countries, but the epidemic is only expected to peak locally in July, according to health experts.

Still, in the capital Delhi, shopping malls, restaurants, temples and mosques were allowed to re-open for the first time since March 25.

The response was tentative, however, and only a trickle of people returned to some places of worship.

Businessman Mohit Budhiraja, wearing a mask and carrying sanitiser, went to his local temple in eastern Delhi for the first time since the lockdown.

“It felt like something was missing when I couldn’t come to the temple for all these weeks,” he said.

“I hope things improve, but now I will come every day.”

Many temples set up sanitisation tunnels at their entrances and barred worshippers from bringing offerings.

“People are having their temperature tested twice before they get in,” said Ravindra Goel, a trustee of the Jhandewalan temple, one of the oldest in Delhi.

The 400-year-old Jama Masjid mosque – one of the biggest in India – planned to allow the faithful in just three times a day instead of the usual five.

Major hit

Delhi is one of India’s worst Coronavirus hotspots, accounting for more than 27,600 cases and 761 deaths – although media reports say the real figures are much higher.

Mumbai, which accounts for around a fifth of India’s cases and hospitals have been overrun, was more cautious. Roadside shops were allowed to re-open, but malls, restaurants and hair salons remained shuttered.

The Indian government says the tough lockdown it ordered on March 25 has limited the spread of the Coronavirus.

But it is now braced for a major hit to the economy, with millions of labourers now jobless.

Rating agencies have said the economy could contract by more than five percent this year, after average growth of about seven percent over the past decade.

Despite restrictions being eased last month, India’s manufacturing sector is struggling to restart because of an exodus of migrant workers prompted by the virus lockdown.

Big cities – once an attractive destination for workers from poor, rural regions – have been hit by reverse migration as millions of labourers fled to their village homes.

“A lot of the manufacturing industry is actually located in the very states where the pandemic’s impact has been great,” Professor Santosh Mehrotra at Jawaharlal Nehru University told AFP last week.

“Now these are the areas where naturally workers have left in large numbers… They will not return in a hurry.”

Source: france24.com

India’s Coronavirus infections crossed 200,000, the health ministry said on Wednesday, and a peak could still be weeks away in the world’s second most populous country.

Cases jumped by 8,909 over the previous day in one of the highest single-day spikes, taking the tally to 2,07,615. Six other nations, from the United States, to Britain and Brazil, have a higher caseload.

“We are very far away for the peak,” said Dr Nivedita Gupta, of the government-run Indian Council of Medical Research.

Government officials have previously said it could be later this month, or even July, before cases start to fall off.

The death toll from the disease stood at 5,815.

Source: france24.com

As India reels from the effects of a nationwide lockdown, here are three heartwarming stories of people going the extra mile to help someone out, or cheer them up.

“You’ve made my day!”

India has been in lockdown since 25 March. Many people are stuck at home alone, leaving the elderly especially feeling lonely and cut-off from family and friends.

So Karan Puri, an elderly resident of Panchkula, a town in the northern state of Haryana, was in for a pleasant surprise when the police came knocking at his door recently.

In a video that has since been shared widely, Mr Puri can be seen striding towards the gate, saying, “I am Karan Puri, I live alone and I am a senior citizen.”

But what happens next leaves him stumped. “Happy birthday to you!” As the police officers sing, Mr Puri doubles over in surprise, asking them how they know. He says his children are away and he starts to tear up.

The police tell him there is no need to feel lonely because they are like his family too, before producing a birthday hat and a cake, which Mr Puri then cuts while the officers resume singing.

“Thank you!” he tells them at one point. “You’ve made my day.”

A meal for two

Doctors in India, like elsewhere, are on the front lines fighting the pandemic, and they are often working around the clock.

“The anxiety and stress levels at work are immense,” said Kaushik Barua, a 30-year-old critical care resident at a private hospital in the Indian capital, Delhi.

Mr Barua spoke to the Humans of Delhi blog, which was inspired by Humans of New York.

“But through this tough journey, I have had the help of one truly kind soul,” he said.

His landlord, Rohit Suri, has been cooking him meals every day, so he has a plate of hot food waiting for him when he returns home, exhausted, from work.

The two men have become good friends, as Mr Suri also lives alone.

“I’m glad I could capture our moment of camaraderie this morning,” says Dr Barua of the selfie that has made it to the popular blog. And, as you can see, they are social distancing in this “Vitamin D selfie”, as Mr Barua and Mr Suri refer to it.

Dr Barua says he feels especially lucky and grateful because one of his friends, who is also a doctor, was asked by her landlord to vacate her home. Several doctors and nurses in India have complained of this, saying landlords and neighbours were afraid of contracting the virus from them.

“Mr Suri has been a remarkable human being, the kind that the world needs in such times,” Mr Barua said.

Lockdown Birthdays can be special too. We wish Sh. Karan Puri of Sector 7, Panchkula a Very Happy Birthday 🎂
@Nijhavan_v @cmohry @police_haryana @nsvirk @ipspankajnain @ANI pic.twitter.com/RRKCrvD9SE

— Commissionerate of Panchkula (@CP_PANCHKULA) April 28, 2020

Source: bbc.com

A day after extending a nationwide lockdown, India has relaxed restrictions on farming, banking and public works, but transport services and most businesses remain closed.

The rules which come into effect on 20 April, are expected to ease the supply chain and alleviate economic impact.

The lockdown which began on 25 March to contain the spread of the coronavirus will now end on 3 May.

India has reported 9,756 active cases and 377 deaths so far.

Although the country recorded its first case at the end of January, the numbers began to spike only by early March.

It was one of the first countries to impose heavy travel restrictions, including suspending most visas and eventually stopping all international flights. It also banned trains and flights within the country when the lockdown began.

But the continued restrictions will likely prove to be a challenge to implement. The news of the extension on Tuesday prompted thousands of migrant workers to take to the streets in some cities, demanding they be allowed to return home to their villages.

What has changed?

Apart from the restrictions on both international and domestic travel, schools, colleges, malls, cinema halls and most businesses except those providing essential services such as groceries and pharmacies will remain shut. All public gatherings social, political or religious are also still banned.

But the government has said it will allow agricultural businesses to open.

This includes dairy, aquaculture, tea, coffee and rubber plantations, as well as shops selling farming products such as fertilisers or machinery.

Public works programmes, which are a crucial source of employment for daily-wage earners, will also reopen, but under strict instructions to follow social distancing norms.

Trucks, trains and planes carrying cargo will also be allowed to operate as India has faced a supply crunch in recent weeks with goods being stuck at state borders.

Banks will also reopen, as will government centres distributing social security benefits and pensions.

Who do the new rules affect?

Most of the rules affect those involved in farming or businesses that support it. Agriculture employs more than 50% of Indians, and with the winter crop just harvested, getting food from the villages to the cities has become important to avoid shortages.

E-commerce will also benefit as courier services will restart from 20 April and once restrictions on cargo are lifted, many goods that were in short supply are likely to be available again. This is especially likely to help small or boutique retailers who rely on online orders for food items or other products such as tea and coffee.

The self-employed such as plumbers, electricians and carpenters will also be allowed to work, which will be welcome news to people working from home.

And roadside eateries on highways will also reopen with social distancing norms in place so lorry drivers transporting cargo have regular access to food.

But the government has said none of these new rules will apply in what they call “containment zones”. State and district officials will actively take steps to identify virus hotspots and demarcate such zones, which will, in effect be sealed off, allowing only emergency vehicles or police to enter or leave these areas. And the new rules will not apply in these areas.

Source: BBC 

India has reported its biggest single-day jump in new coronavirus cases, with 601 in the past day representing a 26% rise, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The country now has 3,082 cases and 86 deaths, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.

The surge in cases has been linked to a religious gathering held at a New Delhi mosque in March, a senior health ministry official said. People from across India and overseas had gathered for the event.

So far, 647 cases have been directly linked to the gathering, said Lav Agarwal, a senior official of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. He added that the cases have been identified and isolated across 14 states and union territories

The Delhi government said earlier this week that it will be taking strict action against those responsible for organizing the gathering.

“We are being told that a lot of people left this mosque and went to different parts of the country,” Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said. “It is scary to think how many people might have been impacted by this incident.”

Source: cnn.com

Indian authorities in the northern state of Punjab have quarantined around 40,000 residents from 20 villages following a Covid-19 outbreak linked to just one man.

The 70-year-old died of coronavirus – a fact found out only after his death.

The man, a preacher, had ignored advice to self quarantine after returning from a trip to Italy and Germany, officials told BBC Punjabi’s Arvind Chhabra.

India has 640 confirmed cases of the virus, of which 30 are in Punjab.

However, experts worry that the real number of positive cases could be far higher. India has one of the lowest testing rates in the world, although efforts are under way to ramp up capacity.

There are fears that an outbreak in the country of 1.3 billion people could result in a catastrophe.The man, identified as Baldev Singh, had visited a large gathering to celebrate the Sikh festival of Hola Mohalla shortly before he died.A week after his death, 19 of his relatives have tested positive.

“So far, we have been able to trace 550 people who came into direct contact with him and the number is growing. We have sealed 15 villages around the area he stayed,” a senior official told the BBC.

Another five villages in an adjoining district have also been sealed.

This is not the first time that exposure has resulted in mass quarantining in India.

In Bhilwara, a textile city in the northern state of Rajasthan, there are fears that a group of doctors who were infected by a patient could have spread the disease to hundreds of people.

Seven thousand people in villages neighbouring the city are under home quarantine.

India has also declared a 21-day lockdown, although people are free to go out to buy essential items like food and medicine.

Source: BBC 

They have been hailed as India’s coronavirus “heroes”, but doctors, nurses, delivery drivers and other frontline workers have been attacked and in some cases evicted from their homes by panicked residents.

Some e-commerce giants have even halted deliveries partly due to the harassment of staff, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi said abuse of hospital workers had become a “huge issue”.

Reports of attacks and abuse have come from across India, increasing with the imposition this week of a 21-day nationwide lockdown. In at least one case, police were accused of beating a delivery driver carrying medicines.

Sanjibani Panigrahi, a doctor in the western city of Surat, described how she was accosted as she returned home from a long day at a hospital that is treating COVID-19 patients.

She said neighbours blocked her at the entrance to her apartment building and threatened “consequences” if she continued to work.

“These are the same people who have happily interacted with me (in the past). Whenever they’ve faced a problem, I’ve helped them out,” the 36-year-old told AFP.

“There is a sense of fear among people. I do understand. But it’s like I suddenly became an untouchable.”

This week, doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences appealed to the government for help after health workers were forced out of their homes by panicked landlords and housing societies.

“Many doctors are stranded on the roads with all their luggage, nowhere to go, across the country,” the letter said.

Modi called on Indians to stop treating medical workers as pariahs, describing those fighting the virus were “god-like”.

“Today they are the people who are saving us from dying, putting their lives in danger.”

Fake news and paranoia

Health workers are not the only ones facing the brunt of the frightened population in an environment where misinformation and rumours are thriving.

Airline and airport staff, who are still being called on for evacuations of Indians stuck overseas and management of key cargo deliveries, have also been threatened.

Airline and airport staff, who are still being called on for evacuations of Indians stuck overseas and manage key cargo deliveries, have also been threatened.

Indigo and Air India have condemned threats made against their staff.

An Air India flight attendant told AFP her neighbours threatened to evict her from her apartment while she was heading to the United States, saying she would “infect everyone”.

“I couldn’t sleep that night,” she said, afraid to reveal her name over fear of further stigmatisation.

“I was scared that even if I did go home, would someone break open the door or call people to kick me out?”

Her husband had to ask the police for help.

Others have not been as lucky, the flight attendant said, with one colleague — who declined to speak to AFP — forced out of her home and now living with her parents.

“With all the fake news and WhatsApp forwards, they don’t know what is going on, so there’s this paranoia that makes them behave like this,” she said.

T. Praveen Keerthi, general secretary of the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (IPCA), told AFP they had received more than 50 complaints from airline crew.

“Airline staffers are being stopped from entering their own residential premises by security guards,” he said.

“We also have families and children that we leave at home to help fellow citizens… The least we expect is for our colleagues to not be harassed and ostracised.”

Airport workers involved in moving essential supplies have also faced attacks as have delivery workers transporting medicines and groceries.

E-commerce giant Flipkart temporarily suspended services this week.

The Walmart-owned group said it only resumed home deliveries after police guaranteed “the safe and smooth passage of our supply chain and delivery executives”.

Source: AFP

An activist with India’s ruling party has been arrested after a volunteer fell ill from drinking cow urine at a party to combat the novel coronavirus, police said Wednesday, as interest grows in home remedies amid the pandemic.

Narayan Chatterjee, a Bharatiya Janata Party activist, was arrested by West Bengal state police late Tuesday for “organising the cow urine consumption event and compelling a civic volunteer to drink cow urine”, Kolkata police chief Anuj Sharma told AFP.

“The civic volunteer fell sick on Tuesday and lodged a complaint with the police. The BJP activist was arrested on Tuesday night.”

The president of BJP’s West Bengal branch told AFP Chatterjee’s arrest was “unfortunate”.

“India is a democratic country. Everyone has the right to express his opinion,” Dilip Ghosh said.

“It’s unfortunate that Chatterjee was arrested for expressing his opinion organising the event. We don’t know if the civic volunteer was forced to drink cow urine.”

Many in the Hindu-majority nation of 1.3 billion consider cows sacred and believe drinking cow urine is a panacea for all manner of ailments, from arthritis and asthma to cancer and diabetes.

Last week, dozens of Hindu activists held a cow urine party in the capital New Delhi where they staged fire rituals and drank urine from earthen cups in order to fight the COVID-19.

Critics have rejected the urine claims as quackery.

A milk trader in the same state was arrested Tuesday for selling cow urine and dung and claiming they “would keep the novel coronavirus at bay”, senior police officer from Hooghly district Humayan Kabir told AFP.

Kabir said the trader, Sheikh Masud, was selling cow urine at 500 Indian rupees ($6.69) a litre and cow dung at 400 rupees a kilogramme (2.2 pounds).

Masud, who hung a poster at his shop with the words “Drink cow urine to ward off coronavirus” told police he was inspired to sell the excrement after hearing about the Delhi party.

AFP has sought comment from the Ministry of Health on whether cow dung and cow urine are effective in curing COVID-19.

The World Health Organisation in India has also been contacted for comment over the urine and dung claims.

The government said Wednesday there have been 151 positive cases and three deaths from the virus in India, the world’s second-most populous country with 1.3 billion people.

Most schools, entertainment facilities including cinemas, and even the iconic Taj Mahal have already been closed in India to try and stop the spread of the outbreak.

Source: AFP

India has recorded its first death linked to the coronavirus, officials have confirmed.

The 76-year-old man, from the southern state of Karnataka, returned from Saudi Arabia on 29 February after a month-long visit.

People who came in contact with the man, who died on Tuesday, are being traced and quarantined, the state’s health minister said.

India has 81 confirmed cases of the virus, the health ministry says.

The dead man’s test results were only made public on Thursday.

Officials say he was screened at the airport when he arrived from Saudi Arabia but showed no symptoms at the time.

After he developed difficulties last week, he was taken to hospital.

ndia’s Supreme Court has said it will only hear urgent cases from Monday, and has restricted the number of people who can enter a courtroom.

The southern state of Karnataka has banned all gatherings including weddings, sports events and conferences for a week as the country attempts to slow the spread of the virus.

Malls, movie theatres, pubs and night clubs have also been shut.

“The government will decide on further action after a week following a review,” the state’s chief minister BS Yediyurappa announced on Friday.

But he said that government offices would continue to function as normal.

India has taken a number of steps to halt the spread of Covid-19:

• All visas, barring a select few categories, have been suspended for a month
• Visa-free travel afforded to overseas citizens of the country has been suspended until 15 April and even those allowed in could be subject to 14 days of quarantine
• Schools, colleges and movie theatres in the capital, Delhi, have been shut until 31 March
• The Indian Premier League (IPL), featuring nearly 60 foreign players and scheduled to begin on 29 March, has been postponed to 15 April
• Two one-day cricket matches between India and South Africa will be played behind closed doors

India’s health ministry says it was among the first countries in the world to prepare for an outbreak of the respiratory illness, and denied allegations that it was slow in testing suspected cases.

“Our surveillance system is strong and we are able to quickly identify any symptomatic patients,” RR Gangakhedkar from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) told reporters on Thursday.

• Is India prepared for an outbreak?

However, there are concerns about whether the country will be fully equipped to prevent and treat an outbreak.

It would be near impossible for India to force its citizens into mass quarantine and hospitalise people in numbers like China, says the BBC’s Soutik Biswas.

Our correspondent says there are also concerns about the country’s scanty healthcare data. India has a shoddy record in even recording deaths and disease – only 77% of deaths are registered, and doctors are more likely to get the cause of death wrong than right, according to a study the Toronto-based Centre for Global Research. There is patchy data for flu-related deaths.

Rumours, myths and misconceptions spread through social media could also hamper an effective response to the infection.

Source: bbc.com

A group of Italian tourists have been put in quarantine in India, with 17 testing positive for the new coronavirus, a source told AFP Wednesday.

Italy is a hotspot of the deadly virus with 79 deaths and more than 2,500 infected, while India’s official case total stands at only 21.

After two out of a group of 23 tourists who arrived in the country last month tested positive in the western state of Rajasthan, the other 21 were put under quarantine in a special facility in New Delhi on Tuesday.

“Out of the 21 tourists, 15 have been tested positive for coronavirus. We are awaiting test results of the others,” the source said on condition of anonymity.

Worldwide around 3,200 people have died from the virus with more than 90,000 infections, with China, South Korea, Italy, Iran and Japan the worst affected.

India has now stepped up preventative measures including barring visitors from Italy, Iran, South Korea and Japan, except diplomats and officials from international bodies.

“There is no need to panic. We need to work together, take small yet important measures to ensure self-protection,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted on Tuesday.

“Had an extensive review regarding preparedness on the COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. Different ministries & states are working together, from screening people arriving in India to providing prompt medical attention,” he said.

Source: France24