'Close your eyes and those of your children, order personnel in protective gear, as a group of men, women and children squat on the road. Next comes a spray of bleach and many cry out as their eyes sting. The shocking video of migrants being "disinfected" has emerged from Uttar Pradesh on a day the Supreme Court took up a petition seeking relief for the thousands walking to their home states amid the 21-day lockdown. The video was filmed in Bareilly district - about 270 km from Lucknow.
'Discrimination against Northeast students in Mysuru is not an exception, as people from the region in Bengaluru have been bearing the brunt for the past two weeks — they have been called names and even forced to vacate their houses. Vezokho Resu, president of North East Welfare Association Karnataka (NEWAK), said he has attended to at least 10 people who were forced to vacate their homes in Koramangala and Shantinagar. “They started with calling people from the northeast as ‘corona’ and it has escalated since.
'“No, we are not covered by this curfew. We cannot afford to take a day off. After all, people need to stay safe – and for that we have to keep cleaning the city,” says Deepika, a sanitation worker in the Thousand Lights locality of Chennai.
'Just as Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray declared on Sunday that 163 emergency safe spaces were up and running in the state to shelter stranded the homeless, including migrant labourers, 40-year-old Shanta Sawant was in fact turned away from one of them. At some places in Mumbai, local residents have taken exception to such centres being put up in their locality and have claimed that this puts them at risk...'
'The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has recommended that healthcare workers and caregivers of confirmed COVID-19 patients, be prescribed hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) as a preventive against the disease, even as experts told IndiaSpend that the efficacy of this drug for preventing COVID-19 infections is unproven. At the same time, hospitals are falling short of protective gear, such as masks and bodysuits which are known to be effective in keeping healthcare workers safe, according to experts.
'Thousands of migrant workers have been trying to get home, with many of them attempting to cross state borders, amid the 21-day lockdown imposed to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Many of them have died. While the deaths of at least 22 such migrants are documented, the actual number might be much more...'
'...Soumita Basu, a 37-year-old entrepreneur from Kolkata, has arthritis and has not been able to access her medicines since the lockdown. She has been prescribed hydroxychloroquine for her illness, but since reports emerged that the medicine may possibly prevent Covid-19, it is in short supply in medical stores. “People have started hoarding hydroxychloroquine, a very potent drug, without a doctor’s prescription. People like me who need it for our survival are not getting access to it,” she told ThePrint.
'On the first day of a three-week nationwide lockdown, Jan Swasthya Sahyog’s hospital, in Ganiyari village of Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur district, remained largely empty. In a place like Ganiyari, an empty hospital does not mean that less people are ill; it means the ill are simply not getting medical care. At 8 pm on 24 March, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, effective from midnight.
'...Ever since businesses took harsh steps due to Covid-19, migrants, constituting a large chunk of the country’s unorganised sector, expressed their frustration through a mass exodus from several cities without caring about the prescribed social distancing norms. With luggage on their shoulders, toddlers in arms and other family members by the side, thousands of them decided to leave the cities they had known as their own, catching the administration unawares...'
'Five people with an alleged history of alcohol addiction have committed suicide — five days into the lockdown in Kerala — and reports point to the health woes of alcohol addicts building up into a major concern on the sidelines of the battle against COVID-19 across the state. Reports of suicide attempts by two alcohol addicts emerged in Malappuram on Saturday besides a sudden increase in the number of admissions at de-addiction centres and mental health units at government hospitals...'
