Raincoats, helmets protect Kolkata, Haryana doctors in coronavirus fight

The plight of doctors in the pandemic has cast a light on a dilapidated and overburdened public health system that has for years been starved of funds

Shortages of protective health gear in India are forcing some doctors to use raincoats and motorbike helmets while fighting the coronavirus, exposing the weak state of the public health system ahead of an anticipated surge in COVID-19 cases.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government on Monday said India was trying to procure bulk quantities of such gear, called personal protective equipment (PPE), domestically and from South Korea and China to meet the shortages.

But more than a dozen doctors on the front lines of treating the novel coronavirus, which has so far infected 1,251 people in India and killed 32, told