'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.
'As public health experts continue to wonder why India has such low rates of diagnostic tests for COVID-19 per capita, a recently published study by ICMR scientists indicates the council may have ignored its own analysis on the need for more aggressive testing. A mathematical model prepared by ICMR scientists almost two months ago suggested that simply isolating symptomatic international air passengers could not have helped delay a COVID-19 epidemic in India...'
'An asthma patient died in Kasargod who could not access medical aid in time. The deceased was a native of Thuminad, a region in Kerala-Karnataka border. Meanwhile, a pregnant woman delivered a baby in an ambulance while she was on her way to Mangalapuram...'
'A half-filled drum of water measuring about 25 litres is all Rekha has left for her family of six living in a slum cluster near south Delhi’s Mahipalpur. For the past three days, she said, her son and nephew have been unsuccessful in reaching a nearby, privately owned borewell from where they get their daily supply, because of police heavy handedness. “There is not a drop of water left here,” said the 35-year-old, referring to the jhuggi jhopri cluster of about a 100 families that are involved in waste picking in Mahipalpur.
'With his first speech on the coronavirus, Prime Minister Narendra Modi got us to scare evil spirits away by having people bang the hell out of their pots and pans. With his second, he scared the hell out of all of us. With not a word on how the public, particularly the poor, are to access food and other essentials in coming weeks, it sparked off a panic waiting to happen. The middle classes thronged the stores and markets – something not easy for the poor. Not for migrants leaving the cities for their villages. Not for small vendors, domestic help, agricultural labourers.
'Anger is simmering in Goa, India’s smallest state, whose chief minister is keen to ensure a 100% lockdown including cracking down on the supply of daily essentials like milk and bread as the lockdown has begun to affect not just stranded tourists and homeless but even middle class households. With Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s grand plan for home delivery proving to be a non-starter, the opposition has approached the Governor’s office seeking his intervention. A group of residents has approached the High Court while still others are baying for the Chief Minister to resign...'
'Derek Gomes is 77 years old and needs kidney dialysis three times a week. His wife Jennifer Gomes depends on auto rickshaws to take him to the Nanavati Hospital, four km away from their flat in Khar in Mumbai. But she is worried she won’t find one for the next 21 days. Prabir Kumar Banerjee, 79, needs to complete his four-month-long chemotherapy cycle for bone marrow cancer. The resident of Faridabad, Haryana, has appointments at the Apollo Hospital in Delhi on March 25 and April 1.
'For the past one week, 32-year-old Shraddha Kejriwal who runs a merchandising business in Pune has been waking up with nightmares. "I am unable to deal with this idea of an uncertain future," she said. Shraddha battles with anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. She is immunocompromised too. The spread of the deadly novel coronavirus that has now forced large parts of the country to go under lockdown, she said, has taken a big toll on her mental health...
'In a case of media vigilantism, a reporter from news channel Republic TV was spotted live on March 24 standing by a team of policemen at the DND flyover which connects Delhi to Noida in Uttar Pradesh, heckling a doctor on his way to work for ‘violating the lockdown’. When the senior doctor, Anish Singhal, who is the director and medical superintendent of the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) Hospital in Noida, showed the reporter his identity card, the reporter termed it ‘fake’. In fact, the channel ran a banner which said, “A man shows fake ID card and tries to venture out”.
'Health workers on duty in villages and district hospitals across rural Kashmir lack personal protection equipment (PPE), making them vulnerable to infection and crippling their ability to work normally amidst the coronavirus outbreak. PPE consists of gloves, masks, eye protection device, and the hazmat cover-all suits worn to protect health care workers from getting infected. These workers pleaded that rural hospitals be supplied with better protective gear to enable doctors and paramedical staff work smoothly.
