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Friday, November 27, 2020

 

Covid World Map: Tracking the Global Outbreak

By The New York TimesUpdated November 27, 2020, 7:51 A.M. E.T.

0
500,000 cases
Feb.
March
April
May
June
July
Aug.
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
7-day average
New cases

Total reported On Nov. 26 14-day change
Cases 61.1 million 573,404 Flat
Deaths 1.4 million 10,674 +21%

14-day change trends use 7-day averages.

MapCountry tableNew casesTips

The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 61,131,200 people, according to official counts. As of Friday morning, at least 1,434,200 people have died, and the virus has been detected in nearly every country, as these maps show.

On Nov. 18, the color scale on the hot spots map was expanded to reflect the new record rates of infection.

Average daily cases per 100,000 people in past week
4
12
20
28
40
68
Few or no cases
Double-click to zoom into the map.
Sources: Local governments; The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University; National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China; World Health Organization.

The coronavirus pandemic is ebbing in some of the countries that were hit hard early on, but the number of new cases is growing faster than ever worldwide, with more than 500,000 reported each day on average.

The table below was recently changed to show the average number of cases per day in the last seven days instead of the total number of cases over the last seven days.


Total
cases
Per 100,000 Daily avg.
in last
7 days
Per 100,000 Weekly cases per capita
Fewer More
Georgia 123,470 3,309 3,656.9 98
Jan. 22
Nov. 26
Georgia heatmap
Serbia 148,214 2,123 6,302.4 90.3
Serbia heatmap
Andorra 6,534 8,485 66.9 86.8
Andorra heatmap
Montenegro 33,316 5,353 534.1 85.8
Montenegro heatmap
Luxembourg 32,873 5,409 518.6 85.3
Luxembourg heatmap
Croatia 119,706 2,927 3,106.7 76
Croatia heatmap
Slovenia 72,682 3,516 1,434.1 69.4
Slovenia heatmap
Lithuania 56,095 2,011 1,895 67.9
Lithuania heatmap
San Marino 1,514 4,481 22.3 66
San Marino heatmap
Austria 270,992 3,063 5,336.4 60.3
Austria heatmap
Weekly cases per capita shows the share of population with a new reported case for each week. Weeks without a reported case are shaded gray.

The virus continues to affect every region of the world, but some countries are experiencing high rates of infection, while others appear to have mostly controlled the virus.

Where new cases are higher and staying high

Countries where new cases are higher had a daily average of at least four new cases per 100,000 people over the past week. The charts, which are all on the same scale, show daily cases per capita and are of countries with at least five million people.

7-day average
Serbia Jan. 22 Nov. 26
Portugal
United States
Sweden
Jordan
Hungary
Romania
Azerbaijan

Where new cases are higher but going down

7-day average
Austria Jan. 22 Nov. 26
Poland
Italy
Switzerland
Bulgaria
Czech Republic
Belgium
U.K.

Where new cases are lower but going up

Countries where new cases are lower had a daily average of less than four new cases per 100,000 people over the past week. The charts, which are all on the same scale, show daily cases per capita and are of countries with at least five million people.

7-day average
Myanmar Jan. 22 Nov. 26
Algeria
Indonesia
Pakistan
Japan
Venezuela
Bangladesh
South Korea

Where new cases are lower and staying low

7-day average
India Jan. 22 Nov. 26
Guatemala
Sri Lanka
El Salvador
Kenya
Philippines
Bolivia
Saudi Arabia

Where new deaths are increasing

The charts, which are all on the same scale, show daily deaths per capita and are of countries with at least five million people.

7-day average
Bulgaria Jan. 22 Nov. 26
Poland
Italy
Hungary
Switzerland
Austria
Greece
Romania

These countries have had the highest growth in newly reported deaths over the last 14 days. Deaths tend to rise a few weeks after a rise in infections, as there is typically a delay between when people are infected, when they die and when deaths are reported. Some deaths reported in the last two weeks may have occurred much earlier because of these delays.

The outbreak was initially defined by a series of shifting epicenters — including Wuhan, China; Iran; northern Italy; Spain; and New York.

Cases worldwide leveled off in April after social distancing measures were put in place in many of the areas with early outbreaks.

But as countries began to reopen in May and June, the United States was unable to contain a resurgence of the disease, making it one of the main drivers of rising case numbers around the world. Many South American countries are also experiencing high rates of infection, and European countries that had severe early outbreaks are seeing a second rise in cases.

New reported cases by day across the world

0
200,000
400,000
600,000 cases
Feb.
March
April
May
June
July
Aug.
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
7-day average
New cases
Note: The seven-day average is the average of a day and the previous six days of data.

Reported deaths by day across the world

0
5,000
10,000 deaths
Feb.
March
April
May
June
July
Aug.
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
7-day average
New deaths
Note: Scale for deaths chart is adjusted from cases chart to display trend.

The New York Times has found that official tallies in the United States and in more than a dozen other countries have undercounted deaths during the coronavirus outbreak because of limited testing availability.

Follow our coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here.

United States

The number of known coronavirus cases in the United States continues to grow. As of Friday morning, at least 12,954,300 people across every state, plus Washington, D.C., and four U.S. territories, have tested positive for the virus, according to a New York Times database, and at least 263,300 patients with the virus have died.

Reported cases in the United States

Average daily cases per 100,000 people in the past week

← Fewer
More →
Coronavirus hotspots
Ala.AlaskaAriz.Ark.Calif.Colo.Conn.
Del.Fla.Ga.HawaiiIdahoIll.Ind.IowaKan.Ky.La.MaineMd.Mass.Mich.Minn.Miss.Mo.Mont.Neb.Nev.N.H.N.J.N.M.N.Y.N.C.N.D.OhioOkla.Ore.Pa.R.I.S.C.S.D.Tenn.TexasUtah
Vt.Va.Wash.W.Va.Wis.Wyo.P.R.
Sources: Local governments; The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University; National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China; World Health Organization.

See our page of maps, charts and tables tracking every coronavirus case in the U.S.

After case numbers fell steadily in April and May, cases in the United States are growing again at about the same rapid pace as when infections were exploding in New York City in late March. But the hotspots are now mainly spread across the southern and western parts of the country.

The New York Times is engaged in an effort to track the details of every reported case in the United States, collecting information from federal, state and local officials around the clock. The numbers in this article are being updated several times a day based on the latest information our journalists are gathering from around the country. The Times has made that data public in hopes of helping researchers and policymakers as they seek to slow the pandemic and prevent future ones.

Read more about the methodology and download county-level data for coronavirus cases in the United States from The New York Times on GitHub.

About the data

Governments often revise data or report a single-day large increase in cases or deaths from unspecified days without historical revisions, which can cause an irregular pattern in the daily reported figures. The Times is excluding these anomalies from seven-day averages when possible.

Tracking the Coronavirus

United States

Thumbnail for Latest Maps and Data

Latest Maps and Data

Cases and deaths for every county

Thumbnail for Deaths Above Normal

Deaths Above Normal

The true toll of the pandemic in the U.S.

Thumbnail for Your Places

Your Places

Build your own dashboard to track cases

Thumbnail for Cities and Metro Areas

Cities and Metro Areas

Where it is getting better and worse

Thumbnail for Restrictions

Restrictions

What is open and closed in each state

Thumbnail for Nursing Homes

Nursing Homes

The hardest-hit states and facilities

Thumbnail for Colleges and Universities

Colleges and Universities

Cases at more than 1,700 schools

World

Thumbnail for Latest Maps and Data

Latest Maps and Data[from map it looks like an Aryan/Anglo saxon and realted ! may be i am wrong

Cases and deaths for every country

Thumbnail for Deaths Above Normal

Deaths Above Normal

The true toll of coronavirus around the world

Health

Thumbnail for Vaccines

Vaccines

Track their development

Thumbnail for Treatments

Treatments

Rated by effectiveness and safety

Countries

  • Brazil
  • Canada
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Italy
  • Mexico
  • Spain
  • U.K.
  • United States

States, Territories and Cities

  • Alabama
  • Alaska
  • Arizona
  • Arkansas
  • California
  • Colorado
  • Connecticut
  • Delaware
  • Florida
  • Georgia
  • Hawaii
  • Idaho
  • Illinois
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Data

  • Frequently Asked Questions About the Covid Data
  • Access the Open Source Covid Data

What you can do

Experts’ understanding of how the Covid-19 works is growing. It seems that there are four factors that most likely play a role: how close you get to an infected person; how long you are near that person; whether that person expels viral droplets on or near you; and how much you touch your face afterwards. Here is a guide to the symptoms of Covid-19.

You can help reduce your risk and do your part to protect others by following some basic steps:

Keep your distance from others. Stay at least six feet away from people outside your household as much as possible.

Wear a mask outside your home. A mask protects others from your germs, and it protects you from infection as well. The more people who wear masks, the more we all stay safer.

Wash your hands often. Anytime you come in contact with a surface outside your home, scrub with soap for at least 20 seconds, rinse and then dry your hands with a clean towel.

Avoid touching your face. The virus can spread when our hands come into contact with the virus, and we touch our nose, mouth or eyes. Try to keep your hands away from your face unless you have just recently washed them.

Here’s a complete guide on how you can prepare for the coronavirus outbreak.

Note: Data are based on reports at the time of publication. At times, officials revise reports or offer incomplete information. Population data from World Bank.

Posted by Bamr Mann bombaymann@gmail.com at 8:30 AM No comments:
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Monday, September 28, 2020

 


(PDF) Covid-19 and the Fibonacci Numbers - ResearchGate

www.researchgate.net › publication › 339939433_Covid-19_and_the_F...
Mar 27, 2020 - In this paper we have given a simple model for the spread of virus in terms of Fibonacci numbers. ResearchGate Logo. Discover the world's ...

Posted by Bamr Mann bombaymann@gmail.com at 4:35 AM No comments:
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Sunday, August 16, 2020

Mumbai

India’s TB success a myth: Canadian expert

Jyoti Shelar
October 31, 2017 00:41 IST
Updated: October 31, 2017 00:41 IST
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Stephen Lewis (left) with chest physician Dr. Zarir Udwadia. Stephen Lewis (left) with chest physician Dr. Zarir Udwadia.  

Stephen Lewis of AIDS-Free World surveyed healthcare facilities in New Delhi, Mumbai

Mumbai: India has miles to go before it successfully tackles tuberculosis, Stephen Lewis, co-founder and co-director of international advocacy organisation AIDS-Free World, has said. Mr. Lewis, who was on a fact-finding tour of New Delhi and Mumbai earlier this month, has come out with ‘TB in India: Rhetoric vs. Reality’, a report that says it’s too early to shower accolades on the Indian government, and nothing in the last several years lends confidence.
Mr. Lewis claims in his report that many in India and other countries feel India has dramatically turned the corner on TB, with the government calling for its elimination by 2025, charting out a National Strategic Plan, rolling out the diagnostic tool GeneXpert, going in for a broader rollout of two new drugs, bedaquiline and delamanid, and the Prime Minister too adding his voice to the crescendo of endorsement.
“I want, with all my heart, to believe that this picture of achievement is real. But I am seized by incredulity. There are too many factors that give me pause,” Mr. Lewis said. He spent four days in New Delhi and three in Mumbai with colleague Georgia White, visiting public and private sector facilities, senior bureaucrats, the World Health Organisation, USAID, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, Gates and the Médecins Sans Frontières in both cities.
Mr. Lewis, who has been Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations, says the goal of eliminating TB by 2025 is aspirational mythology. “During our trip, we barely heard reference to latent TB, although a third of the population has it, and it could, with hallucinatory implications, lead to active TB. The social determinants of health lie in tatters: homelessness, overcrowding, poor nutrition, food insecurity and excruciating poverty, taken together, constitute a death knell for public health.”
Referring to a visit to a paediatric hospital in New Delhi, he said, “Toddlers were lying three and four to a bed. Dr. Singh, the lead doctor, was explaining to us that there was no way to isolate children with TB, nor was there focused paediatric care for children in specialised Multi Drug Resistant-TB settings. They were breaking pills for adults into small fragments, hoping for successful treatment of childhood TB.”
Mr. Lewis also talks about the 18-year-old girl from Patna, who had to go to court to get access to the highly-controlled anti-TB drug bedaquiline, and how she has not shown any signs of the disease after bedaquiline. “It is, however, incomparably sad to report that her lungs are so compromised that survival will be a constant struggle. It should never have come to that for the girl: she stands as a medical billboard for the failures of the Indian health system in addressing tuberculosis.”
Dr. Zarir Udwadia, a Mumbai-based chest physician, said Mr. Lewis eloquently exposes the hypocrisy and doublespeak still surrounding TB in some government circles. “As he points out, unless we build bridges between public and private sectors, the problem will worsen.”
Dr. Sunil Kharpade, who heads the Central TB Division under the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in New Delhi, said he isn’t aware of Mr. Lewis, his visit or his statement. “Many such people keep visiting. They are mainly activists. India’s TB programme is doing very well and has received global recognition.”
Posted by Bamr Mann bombaymann@gmail.com at 12:50 PM No comments:
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Friday, August 14, 2020


Special Report: Last doctor standing - Pandemic pushes ...

www.reuters.com › article › special-report-last-doctor-st...

1 day ago - Special Report: Last doctor standing - Pandemic pushes Indian hospital to brink. BHAGALPUR, India (Reuters) - Guards armed with rifles escort Dr. Kumar Gaurav as he makes the rounds at his hospital on the banks of the Ganges River.
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World News
August 13, 2020 / 4:45 AM / Updated a day ago

Special Report: Last doctor standing - Pandemic pushes Indian hospital to brink

Danish Siddiqui
14 Min Read

BHAGALPUR, India (Reuters) - Guards armed with rifles escort Dr. Kumar Gaurav as he makes the rounds at his hospital on the banks of the Ganges River.

https://www.reuters.com/video/?videoId=OVCR388KR&jwsource=clhttps://www.reuters.com/video/?videoId=OVCR388KR&jwsource=clhttps://www.reuters.com/video/?videoId=OVCR388KR&jwsource=clhttps://www.reuters.com/video/?videoId=OVCR388KR&jwsource=cl


The guards are there to protect him from the relatives of patients, including those suffering from COVID-19. The relatives keep barging into the wards, even the ICU, to stroke and feed their loved ones, often without wearing even the flimsiest of masks as barriers against the novel coronavirus.
“If we stop them, they get angry,” he says. “They want to give homemade meals to their patients, and some even want to massage their patients. And they are taking the infections from our ICUs to the other people in the society.”
He stops to tell the wife of a patient in the ICU she must leave. She obeys, only to return after a few minutes from another entrance.
It’s the monsoon season, and the humidity is reaching unbearable levels. But the few air conditioners in the hospital aren’t working, and some relatives use hand fans to keep their loved ones cool in wards dirty with garbage and discarded protective equipment.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this for Kumar.
Nine years ago, the 42-year-old psychiatrist moved his family back to his hometown for a quieter life and better pay after three years in the Indian capital, New Delhi. He accepted a job as a medical professor and consultant psychiatrist at the 900-bed Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College and Hospital, named after India’s first prime minister. Life was uneventful but rewarding, spent teaching classes and visiting his psychiatry patients.
Now, with some doctors struck down by the coronavirus and others refusing to work, he has been named the top official at the hospital, despite being one of its most junior consultants – and suffering from diabetes and hypertension, two risk factors for severe COVID-19.
But he says he felt compelled to volunteer for the job.
“A lot of my colleagues refused,” he says. “I had to take up the responsibility.”
In April, as the pandemic struck here in the eastern state of Bihar, the hospital was selected as one of just four COVID-dedicated hospitals for a population of 100 million people – at least in theory.
In practice, Kumar says the nearest hospital with proper critical-care facilities is around 200 kilometers (120 miles) away. And with proper healthcare in the surrounding rural areas difficult to find, general patients have nowhere else to go but his hospital.
In June, Kumar says, the district administration instructed the hospital to treat uninfected patients, too.
“In an ideal world, there should not be any non-COVID patients in this hospital,” Kumar says.
The healthcare system in Bhagalpur, like many other parts of Bihar, is on the verge of collapse, he says.
Interviews with dozens of staff, patients and relatives at the hospital paint a picture of conditions that might shock those accustomed to images of hermetically sealed ICUs during the pandemic, with relatives not even allowed to touch their dying loved ones.
They tell of a chronic shortage of manpower and resources such as blood and medicines. All 37 beds in the ICU are occupied; on the floor next to one of the beds, a relative sits on a brightly colored blanket he has brought from home, a water bottle by his side.
Kumar says he feels powerless to prevent the lapses in isolation of the COVID patients.
“We don’t know who is positive and who is negative,” the psychiatrist says. “We don’t know their status and we cannot wait for them to be tested. They just need the treatment. We are the most vulnerable population.”
Spokesmen for India’s federal government and the Bihar government, as well as several bureaucrats and ministers responsible for healthcare at federal and state level, didn’t respond to detailed requests for comment. Pranav Kumar, the top bureaucrat in Bhagalpur district, also didn’t respond to a request for comment.

TROUBLED STATE

As infections slow in many other countries, India is still reporting more than 50,000 cases per day. Its total of more than 2 million cases trails only the United States and Brazil, and cases show no signs of slowing. Since the pandemic struck India, more than 46,000 people have died.
Although India’s major cities, such as New Delhi and Mumbai – the first to be hit by the virus – have registered a decline in cases, numbers in second-tier cities and rural areas continue to rise.
Bihar is India’s third-most-populous state; if it were a country, it would be the 14th-most-populous in the world.
The state has a rich history, including the site where the Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment beneath the shade of a Bodhi tree.
But today, Bihar has a reputation as one of India’s problem-plagued states.
Based on indicators including infant nutrition, Bihar’s level of development has more in common with sub-Saharan Africa than India’s prosperous southern states. Almost half of children under 5 in the state are stunted from malnutrition, with more than four in 10 underweight for their age, according to federal data.
Bihar also has the highest population growth in India, and one of the worst education systems, scoring poorly on indicators including adult literacy, the percentage of children attending school and exam results.


Dr. Kumar Gaurav, 42, a medical professor and consultant psychiatrist who has been named the top official at Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College and Hospital during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, despite being one of its most junior consultants, is helped by a colleague to put on personal protective equipment (PPE) before entering the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for COVID-19 patients at Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College and Hospital in Bhagalpur, Bihar, India, July 26, 2020. "If I stand in front of a COVID patient for two minutes, and I see 20 patients, I have exposure for 40 minutes," Gaurav says. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui
The healthcare system was overburdened even before the pandemic struck. Dr. Sunil Kumar, the Bihar secretary of the Indian Medical Association – the main healthcare union in India – said more than half the doctors’ posts in the state are unfilled. That’s because many doctors don’t want to serve in rural areas, according to Bihar’s top court, which urged the state government to do more to fill the roles in a ruling in May.
There have been around 87,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the state and 465 deaths – relatively small compared to other states. Given the low testing levels in the state, the numbers may be conservative. Still, Bihar’s healthcare system is already close to breaking point, unlike places such as New Delhi, which has had many more cases but enjoys better resources.
The state government’s response to the outbreak has prompted public interest litigation asking that India’s federal government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, take over management of the pandemic here.
One case, filed by local businessman Aditya Jalan, says “incalculable” lives will be lost if action isn’t taken soon, especially with the pandemic spreading into less developed and more rural areas.
His petition cites a “complete breakdown of the public health infrastructure in the state of Bihar, including the lack of COVID-19 hospitals, the lack of hospital beds, the insufficient testing, the unsanitary quarantine centres, the lack of enforcement of social distancing measures, the insufficient medical personnel, [and] the failure to provide PPE to front-line workers.”
India’s Supreme Court is due to hear the case Friday.
The state’s healthcare problems are particularly stark in rural Bihar, where government infrastructure is even more rudimentary. In Ismailpur, a village an hour’s drive from Bhagalpur, the ongoing annual floods have cut off the main road to the highway. The floodwaters have reached the doorstep of the dilapidated primary health centre there, which caters to more than 52,000 people.
There are no beds or oxygen cylinders, and a dog and her litter rest on the discarded PPE kits in the corner of the coronavirus testing hall.
“It’s a very backward area,” says one of the two doctors in the center, Dr. Rakesh Ranjan. “People are scared to even get tested. We have to sometimes take police to get people tested.”

HOSPITAL CHAOS

Psychiatrist Kumar’s hospital backs onto the Ganges River, the holiest in India and swollen by the summer monsoon. Next to water buffalos bathing on the banks, private ambulance operators wash their vehicles with clanking buckets.
On the approach road to the hospital, there is a huge pothole, and vehicles carrying patients often get stuck there. Outside the main doors, relatives sit with the bodies of their loved ones waiting for private ambulances to take them for burial or cremation.
The workers who push the trolleys carrying incoming patients to the general emergency wards don’t know the history of the new arrivals, most of whom haven’t been tested yet for the virus. Often wearing only gloves as protective gear, the workers wheel them inside, take their oxygen levels and leave them on trolleys in the corridor, where some people are treated until they can find a bed.
In the corridor, an exhausted woman rests her head on a wall as her husband’s blood sample is collected while he lies on a stretcher next to her. Inside one of the emergency wards, a woman drags her husband from a stretcher to his bed as their relative holds an IV bottle.
Kumar tries to be visible, touring the wards to motivate patients and staff. But it’s a game of constant mental arithmetic. Patients expect to be seen by a senior doctor, but it isn’t always possible.
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“If I stand in front of a COVID patient for two minutes, and I see 20 patients, I have exposure for 40 minutes,” he says.
With so few doctors, that kind of exposure is a risk he can’t often afford to take.
Complaints from junior doctors are constant. During one meeting about a lack of medicines, Kumar promises them he will convince the government that more resources are needed. He later admits it will be difficult.
Kumar weeps as he describes his worst moment since he took over, when a friend of his father who needs blood transfusions at regular intervals asked for help.
“I had to say no, as we don’t have enough blood in the bank. We just have just a minimum for emergencies,” he says. He finds such refusals painful. “I don’t know how to say no to a patient.”

COMING HOME

Born in Bhagalpur, Kumar moved to the northern city of Chandigarh for his medical training, where he met his wife, Mili Jaswal, a psychologist.
After marrying, the young couple moved to New Delhi, where they adopted a street dog, Faith.
Kumar worked in a private hospital but couldn’t handle the culture.
“Their orientation is how much financially you can give back to them,” he says. “It’s difficult for a doctor to work [like] this.”
And so in 2011, Kumar, Mili and Faith boarded a train back to Bihar.
“Financial security was a big factor, and I had my family here,” Kumar says.
His 6-year-old daughter, Iti Swara, was born a few years later. He dotes on her.
He recently had his two-bedroom government bungalow painted pink inside and out at her request. But these days, the hugs he gives his daughter each morning before he goes to work have changed. Now he has fear on his mind, not love.
Mili worries that the long hours and stress of Kumar’s work are taking him away from their daughter.


Slideshow (37 Images)
“When he is home, she wants to speak to him, but he can’t,” she says. “She wants to share her thoughts and play with him, but he is not able to.”
Kumar watched cases in the district slowly rise over a number of months, but the call to take over the running of the hospital last month came suddenly. The previous hospital superintendent had tested positive for the virus, and to Kumar’s surprise, he says some of the more senior doctors refused the post. Attempts to get comment from the doctors were unsuccessful, but lower-ranking doctors at the hospital confirmed Kumar’s account, and an official letter from the previous superintendent cited one of the refusals.
He thought about his extended family, whom he stopped visiting as the virus began to spread through the district. Who would run the hospital if they were admitted, if not him?
“For the people of Bhagalpur and nearby districts, it was my responsibility,” he says. “That is why I raised my hand.”

A PATIENT WAITS

Fear of the virus – and anger at the lack of resources – also haunts the patients and their relatives.
One Sunday in July, Parsada Sah, a gaunt, 67-year-old shopkeeper, tested positive for the coronavirus in a village 50 kilometers from Bhagalpur. Sah, along with his wife, Vimla Devi, and son Manoj, reached the hospital in an ambulance that afternoon.
Manoj showed his father’s positive test to the doctor on duty. He says he was told there were no beds in COVID wards, and was asked to find himself a bed in an already overcrowded 20-bed general emergency ward.
“We were told that this is the only place we can have for now, as there is no space,” Manoj says. “We pleaded with them a lot. They told me that everyone wants a bed.”
Even though they know he’s infected, the family goes inside the ward to feed Sah.
“The staff just puts the food on the bed; they don’t feed anyone,” Manoj says. “If the patient can’t eat himself, he has to get someone to help.”
Kumar says their concerns are genuine.
“We don’t have separate staff for taking patients to washrooms or feed them,” he says. “The problem is, we don’t have enough human resources, from bottom to top.”

BEARING WEIGHT

Eventually, almost a day later, a bed is found for Sah in the isolation ward. When he is moved, Sameer, a 22-year-old medical attendant sent to help with the transfer, hurriedly changes into his plastic overalls. Instead of protective goggles, he uses a pair of cheap sunglasses.
He gestures to his overalls.
“We only get these once we are moving positive patients from the general ward to a COVID ward.” Otherwise, he says, “we are the first people to receive a patient as they enter the gate, but we don’t have any protection.”
After collecting an oxygen tank for the transfer, and fiddling with the cylinder for a few minutes inside the ward, Sameer and his colleague discover that it’s faulty. They take a new one, but the rusted trolley they mount it on barely moves. It screeches as the men try to drag it through the hospital corridors.
The tube attached to Sah’s oxygen mask strains as Sameer tries to keep pace with the stretcher, with the man’s wife and son trailing behind.
Eventually, the wheels of the trolley stop turning altogether. So Sameer hoists the hulking canister onto his shoulders, and bears the weight himself.
Reporting by Danish Siddiqui. Additional reporting by Alasdair Pal in New Delhi. Writing by Alasdair Pal; editing by Kari Howard.
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

THANKS FOR BRINGINGING THIS STORY OUT -BECAUSE INDIAN NEWSPAPERS ARE SO SCARED TO EXPOSE THE TRUTH
Posted by Bamr Mann bombaymann@gmail.com at 2:23 AM No comments:
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