Hello,
As India reels under the pandemic, the rural hinterland finds itself unequipped to handle the onslaught. While the metros and the bigger towns get attention and remedies, even if inadequate, to address the pandemic, there are parts of the country where testing and vaccinations for Covid are still far away. In Uttar Pradesh, as our grantees found, not only is Covid testing and treatment denied, but the government itself is in a state of denial on the Covid toll in the state.
Article 14 reports from the hinterlands of the Agra district, abutting the iconic Taj Mahal, where people are falling prey to a “sudden fever”, undetected and untreated, little aware that it is Covid that is at their doorstep. Adding to their agony is the attempt by the state to restrict testing, recording and isolating; insisting that the pandemic is firmly under control. The unofficial estimate of the numbers? – “20 times” the official count.
The story repeats itself in another corner of Uttar Pradesh, where deaths in the second wave are being attributed to pneumonia and typhoid, despite confirmation by doctors that the cause of death was indeed the Coronavirus. Mojo Story reports from Ramana village, in Varanasi where it found that access to medical care is not only severely restricted for patients but that the families of covid patients dying at home are being denied a death certificate for their deceased members.
Reaffirming the fact of undertesting and underreporting is this investigation by Down To Earth, again in Uttar Pradesh, which finds the gap between the count of Covid casualties on the ground and in official records yawning. The state has a whopping 2.3 lakh Covid test results pending in labs across the state.
In other stories, Asiaville records the unique innovation of ‘Oxygen Autos’ in Chennai. The ‘oxygen ambulances’, equipped with medical oxygen and a volunteer in a PPE kit, go to the house of the patient in immediate need and administer oxygen in the customised auto until he or she can reach a hospital.
And, ThePrint brings you the story of a young man’s jugaad, who when faced with the ordeal of isolating himself in a single room with his family after testing positive for Covid, built a ‘Covid ward’ on the branches of a tree in the compound of his home!
For these and other stories from our grantees, please read on.
Warmly,
Sunil Rajshekhar
IPSMF
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