Missing from Covid-19 pandemic narrative: Infections among doctors

Covid has exposed flaws in India's healthcare system. Over the next 2 weeks, we will bring you reports of those in the first line of defence against the virus

In a government-run hospital in Delhi, a critical care specialist emerges from the Covid intensive care unit (ICU) after four hours of duty. Safety protocols dictate that donning and doffing zones (where medics wear and remove their personal protective equipment, or PPE) must be separate to minimise infection spreading from used PPE. In the hospital, however, there is just one area for both activities. The exhausted doctor removes his PPE, strips naked, washes his own scrubs and hangs them to dry before they can be sterilised in the autoclave.

About 1,000 km away in Bihar, another doctor works for eight