When news of the farmers protest broke out, we were planning a trip to my in laws place to Jalandhar. Luckily, we left from delhi on Saturday, a day after the news on television broke out that the farmer’s had cleared the border and entered delhi. With covid third wave and protests, we did get police barricades on the border entry and de tour through the villages ended us being few hours delayed on the trip to Jalandhar. But nevertheless we reached by night time on Saturday.
Here in delhi, the situation was grim as the pandemic had again come back to haunt us. The third wave had just started after the pollution and the change in weather recently. People were behaving as if the new normal was nothing but the normal that we have always known and its just a regular fever and shall pass. A few people I know remarked that more people die due to poverty and other epidemics in India. The traffic in the city was almost back to normal and crowds could be seen in gyms, malls, markets, and where not. Festival of Diwali in north meant the crackers had to come out and there were many people flouting rules and regulations. Even when they knew that this time it was a case of life and death. For us as a family, we were doing the basics right. Avoiding large gatherings, maintain physical distance, washing hands with soap and staying home.
However, in Gurgaon our society was the most alert but still the number of cases had recently increased and had crossed around 25 families. So, the October Virus wave was a big one this time and it was evident from the television news that something big was coming again and 2020 would not end without another bang. Everybody just hoping this year would end somehow soon.
As we reached Jalandhar, we noticed how people on the road weren’t even wearing the necessary masks to protect themselves and near ones and social distancing was not visible. A few days had passed and I was amazed that life was normal as if nothing had happened. The death rate due to coronavirus was higher here in punjab.
The only reason was that the medical facilities, hospitals and intensive care was not up to the mark and also old aged people who got the disease didn’t have any symptoms before the 6th or 7th day. This was very risky as by the time they would reach the hospitals they would be in a critical state. A relative staying near my in laws house recently got infected and was rushed to the hospital once he started getting symptoms like breathlessness and cough.
Again, I had noticed that people would come to his place and visit. Mostly aged and sometimes younger ones like bank managers and relatives. So, there was a high chance that he would have got the disease through some asymptomatic person. Our family on the other hand, were taking utmost care and not venturing outside in the markets. I made sure that no one was allowed inside the house without invite.
Concerned about the relatives health, I visited the family in the hospital. The hospital he was admitted to was poorly managed. There was no wheelchair access and I managed to climb three flights of stairs, albeit slowly, limping and pausing to the COVID care unit. But seeing the conditions there, the behavior and carefree attitude of the staff, I thought they were looking for trouble. There was not any person checking the temperature at the entry point, not many people wearing masks and not even proper sanitizers at the reception and other important areas for the OPD patients too.
I was really amazed to see this and the shocking fact was that they were charging equal rates similar to the metro hospital rates. While the facilities that they were offering were nearly sub-standard and hazardous to health of a patient and the attendants.
I was now scared about my own health, I realized we needed to make alternate arrangements. Fighting this virus is a big task in itself for the patient and his family. Some hospitals have made it a business but the basic amenities in all states should be similar if they were to charge the same rate for hospitalization.
For the patient, its more about your own resilience, staying positive and fighting the covid disease head on. A lot of emotional trauma is there for near and dear ones but it is just not in anybody’s hands to fight it. We can just pray and wish that as the time passes, the oxygen level is maintained and the lungs get better. But it is high time that there is a strict check on the medical facilities and the checks by the government bodies is stringent.
