Corona's havoc in UP and the poison caste from above

Posted on 15th Jul 2020 by rohit kumar

23-year-old Asadullah is now free from Corona but not due to social boycott. Last April, 23 people of Asadullah's family living in Maghar town of Sant Kabir Nagar district of eastern Uttar Pradesh were declared corona positive. What happened to this family gives a superficial idea of ​​the cruelty that is spreading about Corona in rural India.

 

For a young man studying in Deoband with the desire to become a cleric, suffering from corona and the subsequent all-round atmosphere has been a life-changing experience. Asadullah says, fixing glasses stuck on the sad eyes peeping over black masks. "As soon as the news of my corona being positive came out in late April, a local news channel ran the news without asking us that I am 'jamati'. Along with me, a total of 23 people from my house got a corona test positive. "

 

Asadullah says that the result of that TV report was that people started calling us 'gathering' in the whole area. He says, "I did not even go to Delhi ... nor did I have anything to do with the Jamaat. I study in Deoband. Ever since we came back from Quarantine, it is a situation that if we get the goods Even if you go to the ration shop, people say - Look, the Corona people have come! They have gathered! No one talks directly. "

 

In the first round of the Corona investigation, 18 people from Asadullah's family came positive and a few days later the investigation report of 5 other members also came positive.

 

None of these 23 people had any symptoms of corona. But during the quarantine, 18 people of this house living in Khalilabad Community Health Center of the district faced many problems.

 

Nassibullah, Asadullah's uncle, says, "There was no sanitation nor drinking water facilities. The doors of the toilet were broken and there was dirt everywhere. There was something from the administration on the matter of keeping the girls in the house in a separate center." When the debate took place, the matter went to the police. On the contrary, the notice of inquiry has come against the five people in our house.

 

When Asadullah returned home from Deoband in late March, he was first examined at the Khalilabad Community Health Center.

 

Nassibullah recalls, "Suddenly one evening so many people from the police, administration and media came to our house together. The whole crowd was engulfed. We were not told that we were going to be taken for twenty days ... only that much Went to test and send it back home. After leaving the same meal in the kitchen, we went to put a pair of clothes on the body and then returned home after two weeks, then that evening the food was rotten in the kitchen! "

 

Recalling the past months, Asadullah says philosophically, "I got the lesson from this that sometimes a misunderstanding can make your life take a U-turn forever. Corona got fixed but in the locality we know No, how long will the 'Corona' and 'Jamaat' remain? "

 

Growing Cases and Crisis Hospitals

This is not the only cause of a social boycott involving Corona. A deep apathy, carelessness, and lack of awareness among the people about the corona across the region during the investigation conducted in 6 districts including Gorakhpur, Basti, Maharajganj, Siddarthanagar, Santakbir Nagar and Kushinagar in eastern Uttar Pradesh for this report Examples appeared.

 

According to the latest NITI Aayog report on public health facilities in the country, states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are behind in providing health facilities. Kerala ranks first in this list of NITI Aayog.

 

At the same time, Uttar Pradesh, which is constantly struggling with the poor public health facilities, has now become the most affected state of corona in the country with more than 32 thousand corona positive cases and more than 860 deaths.

 

It was an almost quiet afternoon at Kaili 'Covid' Hospital in Basti district of eastern Uttar Pradesh. It is the only government-level 2 Covid hospital for the township district with a population of about 2.5 million and is the first major hope to escape from Corona.

 

There was no 'compulsory temperature check' before admission to the hospital premises, whereas it is a Covid specialty hospital, ie the OPD form of more than 1500 patients daily, is currently being renamed 'Covid Specialty Apostle'. Has been announced.

 

When the BBC team arrived here wearing important things like shield, mask, and gloves, then Medical Superintendent Dr. GM Shukla's mask was swinging in his neck.

 

He did not wear a mask even once during the half-hour interview. This situation is when three government health workers in the colony have been infected with Corona.

 

Referring to the more than one and a half million migrant laborers and infected health workers who came back to the Basti district, Dr. GM Shukla says, "The workload has increased due to the increasing cases of corona. Three doctors have been infected. Due to this, there is a doubt among the remaining employees but still all are fulfilling their duties. "

 

There are currently 39 serious corona patients admitted to the hospital, of which three are on ventilators. There have been three deaths here before this. The biggest hurdle is the shortage of doctors in expanding the special corona ward of 200 beds and the ICU of only 12 beds.

Says Dr. Shukla, "The hospital has been upgraded to Basti Medical College in the last year itself. We also have 12 ventilators. 10 more have been ordered from Bangalore but we need at least 12 anesthesia to run an ICU of 20 beds. Specialist doctors are needed while we have only 4. Out of those 4 doctors, 2 are around sixty, so they are not able to do corona work. "

 

Masked by

After Kaili Hospital working at a large level at Level Two (L-2), we turned to Rundhauli Health Center in Basti district to know the condition of small health centers.

 

The OPD of the hospital was recently opened after being closed for almost three months and a corona help desk was also built at the door of the campus. The Superintendent of the hospital, Dr. AK Chaudhary, was struggling with the bad sense of a sanitizer bottle.

 

He said, "The thing that goes in our favor is that the death rate due to corona is less than one percent here. So we hope that we will take care of the situation even if the matter increases. Then we have masks, gloves And there's no shortage of PPE safety kits. Even doctors are enough. "

 

Rural health workers like Asha are keeping an eye on migrants coming to every village. Meeting the people, surveying them, and sending information of every person to the hospital when there is power. On this basis, we are sending samples to Gorakhpur for investigation ".

 

But in the meantime, an ASHA worker from Rundhauli entered a doctor's chamber with a female patient. Both the ASHA worker and this pregnant patient did not wear masks.

 

On getting outside the hospital, this rural health worker told the truth of all the claims made by the doctor and the administration, that they have never been given masks and gloves from the hospital till date. Malti Devi, resident of Rondhakal village of Rundhauli block, has been working as an ASHA worker since 2006.

 

"I have surveyed 234 people from outside my village. I feel the danger because we are the first to meet such people. We get corona work," says Malti Devi, who stands in a scarf at the time of the conversation. A thousand rupees more has been given for the month. Apart from this, no facility like mask or gloves has been received from the hospital to date. Nothing is the compulsion to buy and use it with your own money ".

 

Similarly, Dr. Brijesh Shukla, Superintendent of Mithawal Community Health Center in Siddharthnagar district, while sitting without a mask and gloves, kept telling himself that it is becoming difficult to control the corona due to the common people not wearing masks.

 

He said, "Around 2 lakh migrant laborers have returned to Siddarthanagar and till a few weeks ago we were screening corona of ten thousand people every day. Now not many people come but still, it is not possible to stop the infection till then Unless the common people follow the rules of social distancing and masks. "

 

Siddharthnagar's Mithawal Community Health Center was the third hospital in the township where we saw doctors and health workers working without N-95 masks and gloves.

 

Also, the ritual of measuring the temperature of the visitor before entering these health complexes was not being paid. The next day, when he visited the Shyamdeurvi Primary Health Center in Maharajganj, it was found that health workers working continuously there are not available with gloves and masks.

 

Due to the lack of thermal scanners, the staff is not able to check the temperature of the patients coming for treatment.

 

Where will the accessories come from?

India, which spends only 1.28 percent of its GDP on public health, basically works based on three inter-administrative arrangements of primary, community, and district health centers.

 

The per capita expenditure in densely populated states like Uttar Pradesh is lower than in states like Kerala as hospitals and primary health centers have to treat a much larger population.

 

While the primary responsibility for the fight with Corona is higher at Level 1 community health centers and Level 2 district hospitals, primary health centers meanwhile continue to provide emergency delivery facilities in rural areas as there is no other option.

 

Neelam, standing with her newborn baby on the premises of Shyamdeurvi Primary Health Center in Maharajganj, was waiting for her discharge after delivery. Neelam, a resident of nearby Mohanpura village, is standing with her parents but none of the three have worn masks.

 

Staff nurse Vibha Sharma is preparing the file of Neelam amidst the colorless walls of the inner doctor chamber. Chief doctor Dr. Shobhita Srivastava has not reached the hospital yet. Staff nurse Vibha as well as the three paramedical staff members present in the hospital at that time neither wore masks nor gloves.

When asked, Vibha explains, "This hospital is also a delivery point, so we cannot keep it closed. People do not come for an examination and take the patient here for the first time at the time of delivery. So we have no choice - neither To check whether the patient has any symptoms of corona, nor to refer or send it back ".

 

Vibha says, "We have to take delivery on our own. We still do not have masks, gloves, etc., although we have been told that everything will be sent soon."

 

Risk of infection increases after OPD opens

The community health center of the Padwal block of Maharajganj was the first hospital where we saw all the health workers working with masks.

 

The Superintendent of the health center, Dr. Rakesh Kumar, sitting in his chamber after instructing for complete sanitization of the Apastal complex, says that the OPD opening of this hospital providing treatment to more than 500 patients has increased the risk of infection.

 

He says, "Health staff have increased after the corona test positive of a district government doctor. Only emergency services were available at the time of lockdown, so 18 to 20 patients used to come every day. But now since OPD has been started The challenge has increased for everyone ".

 

Dr. Kumar tells that the patients will come only when OPD is opened, and it is difficult to find out which patients have corona and who do not.

 

He says, "Still we are trying to do as much defense as we can. Not letting anyone come in without a mask and cleaning the hospital. Although we have a shortage of fourth class staff but Who are working in whatever resources ".