Another tale from the front line

These days, news and social media are full of stories of heroic doctors and nurses on the front line of the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. After a conversation with 29-year-old Vipin Kumar, I realised that there are other invisible warriors we must also acknowledge. Many people don’t realise the pivotal role lab technicians are playing right now. They are the people who are actually running screening tests on swab samples, risking exposure every day. Kumar is one of them. A post graduate in biotechnology, he is working as a lab technician with Gurugram-based Core Diagnostics, which is supporting the government in Covid-19 testing. Presently the lab is working round the clock processing samples from Haryana and the national capital region. Kumar and other lab technicians operate in eight-hour shifts. Every day, they come across a handful of positive cases. “Whenever a sample tests positive, the lab is galvanised into action,” he says.

“Our topmost priority is to alert the referring doctors so that they can quarantine the patient and start tracking his/her contacts.” Afterwards, silence returns to the lab. “I get back to work after pausing for a minute to think about the person whose sample it is and hope that he/she beats the virus,” he says.

Life has, he says, become rather lonely these days because he has to scrupulously maintain social distance at all times. Every day, he rides his bike from his home in West Delhi’s Uttam Nagar to his workplace. “In the lab, we’re all faceless, silent,” he says. “Everyone wears masks and gloves all the time. No one lingers, no one comes over to chat, not even during mealtimes.” Wearing the essential personal protective equipment is probably the toughest part of his job. “We can’t wear that gear for more than four hours at a stretch,” he says. Consequently, they work in teams in a relay system. Even when he returns home, he has to maintain social distance. “I immediately take a bath, wash my clothes and then go to sleep in a separate room from my wife,” he says. “But I know what I do is worth all this — after all, one can only draw conclusions about the pandemic after one has tested enough members of a population.”

Things could have been very different. When the lockdown was declared, Kumar was visiting his family in Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh. “Realising how essential laboratory testing was going to be, I decided to return to Delhi as soon as possible,” he narrates. But there was no public transport available. “Eventually, a friend in the village lent me his bike and I drove over 200 km back to Delhi so that I could resume my duty,” he says. His family supported him unwaveringly even though they realised he was putting himself at risk. Perhaps this is what gives him the strength to go to work every day in these trying circumstances. “I’m not scared of this virus,” says this young man who wants to study further developments in molecular diagnostics to combat diseases like Covid-19 in the years ahead. “I’m just proud and happy that I have gotten to be a part of the country’s fight against the Covid-19.”