Doctors, nurses share Covid-19 challenges, apprehensions as crisis deepens

As India is fighting the Covid-19 crisis with nationwide lockdown, doctors and healthcare workers are working day and night to minimise the damage due to the pandemic with constant checks on the patients, either through phone or video conferencing.
 

The threat of them catching the coronavirus and infecting their own families also looms large, due to which most of the doctors have given up going homes and have shifted to solitary accommodations.

"The disease is very contagious and till now we do not have any concrete solutions on how to manage it effectively which for us is the primary challenge. We always have to keep in mind that whatever we are doing for the patients should not be harmful, if it is not beneficial. We had to remodel the infrastructure into COVID ward keeping in mind various aspects," Dr Rakesh Garg, who is presently working at Covid-19 facility, National Cancer Institute, AIIMS Jhajjar told news agency ANI.

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is an essential gear that health workers have been mandatorily instructed to wear to protect themselves from harmful biological agents or contaminated surfaces.

However, Dr Suresh, Nodal officer, Head of Special Task Force (STF) Covid-19, LNJP and Maulana Azad Medical College, who is deputed at Covid ICU ward said that given the present weather conditions, wearing PPE for more than five to six hours is unendurable.

"It is not possible to wear PPE kit for more than seven hours. One cannot even use the toilet with this kit, but wearing it is a must for our safety," Dr Suresh said.

Even though reports of healthcare workers being attacked or asked to vacate their rented accomodations continue to rise in the country, nurses at AIIMS Trauma Centre take pride in serving society during crisis.

The female frontline workers posted at AIIMS Trauma Centre say that they try to keep the patients motivated towards their path of recovery and have satisfaction of serving the society at a time of crisis.

"Patients here are under complete isolation. It is not a normal ward where relatives or family members of patients can come. There are no visiting hours for family members. So we try to encourage the patients and tell them that they are safe here with us," Pooja Sethi, a nursing officer at AIIMS trauma centre told ANI.

Meanwhile, a nurse of a private hospital in Mathura and senior doctor in Shillong were found coronavirus positive, officials said.

The nurse was tested positive after one minor was found Covid-19 positive as well in Oal Village of Mathura on Sunday. Both of them are kept in isolation, District Magistrate Sarvagya Ram Mishra said.

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma in separate tweets said that in view of the confirmed Covid-19 case in Meghalaya, the government has imposed 48-hour curfew in Shillong and Nongpoh, a commercial city.

The Meghalaya cabinet will meet on Tuesday to review the situation.

"I urge citizens not to panic. We are closely monitoring the situation and we are prepared to deal with it," Sangma said.

The Meghalaya man became the first doctor in northeast India to get infected by Covid-19.

Meanwhile, the Union Health Ministry on Monday said during a press conference that with the present stock of testing kits, India can continue testing for another six weeks.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that the first consignment of Covid-19 kits from China will arrive in India on April 15.