Once the situation eased, people came out and started celebrating life, believing that everything was normal. The Government, too, lowered its guard
One of the top painters of Lucknow, Rajendra Karan, had a sore throat and a slight fever. He consulted a doctor who advised medicines. His fever came under control but the sore throat continued. Believing that his condition would improve he did not go for a covid test. On April 21 — three days after his symptoms were visible, he felt breathless. His son Rohitas Karan did not wait for the ambulance. He took his father to a private hospital in his own car. “Go get a referral slip from the Chief Medical Officer’s (CMO’s) office. Only then can we admit the patient,” said the receptionist at the Integral Medical College and Hospital in Lucknow. “My father was gasping for breath. I could see he was in pain. But I was curtly asked to get a referral slip,” Rohitas says. He called a few of his friends, requesting them to arrange the referral slip for him. He was told that he must register at the Integrated Central Command Centre (ICCC). However, before he could get his father registered and get a referral slip from the CMO’s office, Rajendra Karan died in the car, outside the hospital, waiting for treatment. “My father would have been alive today if the hospital had admitted him instead of waiting for a piece of paper from the CMO’s office,” Rohitas says. The Government’s rule says that registration of a patient in the ICCC at the CMO’s office is mandatory and admission is given to the patient only if s/he has a referral slip from that centre. Hundreds of patients died as they were turned away by the hospital because they did not have the referral slip. After a hue and cry was raised this mandatory clause was withdrawn for admission in private hospitals but this still holds good for admission in State-run hospitals where only 30 per cent of the seats are for open admission while the rest are through the ICCC.
“We know that this is a draconian procedure and is against the spirit of imparting treatment to the patients. We have seen patients dying in the waiting area but we cannot help because they do not have the referral slip,” a doctor says with regret.
Now, take the case of Navanita Paramanik Rajput, 37, who was seven months pregnant. She had a cold and slight fever. Her gynecologist gave her medicine. As her condition did not improve she was admitted to a private nursing home. In a day her fever came under control but the oxygen level started dropping. “The gynecologist called me up and said that it would be better if we could shift her to a better-equipped hospital. There is no danger to her life but it is better to shift her,” Radha Gobindo Pramanik, her father says. On April 18 she was taken to the King George’s Medical College Hospital. She came out of the ambulance smiling. Her husband Varun went for registration and when he returned after a few minutes he saw that his wife was gasping for breath. “We ran to get oxygen. We were told there is no oxygen cylinder in the OPD. I rushed to the emergency and there, too, the doctors said they could not help. I thought of taking her back to the nursing home where at least oxygen was available. The ambulance had left by then. I heard my son-in-law shouting. Before I could understand what was happening she collapsed in the arms of her husband, just at the doorstep of Lucknow’s top hospital ,” Pramanik recalls with tears in his eyes.
“It was my folly that I shifted her from the nursing home. It was a big mistake because of which I lost my daughter,” he says sobbing. “I knew there was an oxygen crisis but I never knew that this big Government hospital would have no oxygen cylinders,” he says with regret writ large on his face.
On May 6 the Uttar Pradesh (UP) Government claimed that 353 people died of the Coronavirus, with Lucknow recording 65 fatalities in the last 24 hours. On the face of it, the number of deaths in Lucknow looks small when compared with the magnitude of the catastrophe the country is facing. But the line of bodies in the cremation grounds belies this claim. People whose job it is to cremate bodies say that the number of people being cremated is much higher than what the Government is claiming. A rough estimate says that in Lucknow more than 200 bodies are either cremated or buried per day. A Hindi newspaper reported that on April 22, at least 437 bodies were cremated in all the cremation grounds across Lucknow. On April 18 the cremation ground in Lucknow received 187 bodies. So where are these bodies coming from? Is there undercounting of casualties? The local administration realises the pressure that cremation grounds are facing and, therefore, has set up extra platforms for cremation in the two main crematoriums of Bhainsakund and Gulalaghat.
PK Srivastava, a resident of Lucknow, says the inflow is so high that the local administration has introduced a token system. “I had gone for a cremation of my relative on Saturday and our token number was 90,” he said, adding that it took over 14 hours for the cremation to take place.
Normally around 45-50 bodies are cremated daily. In Lucknow, bodies of covid patients are cremated separately. The Government claims that the primary cause of the crisis in the crematoriums is that bodies are also coming in from neighbouring districts. There is no proper system to cremate covid victims there so people are bringing them to Lucknow.
A little over a month ago — on March 29 — the country celebrated Holi. Throwing all precaution to the wind, people mingled and smeared colour on each other. A day earlier the markets were bustling. Throwing precaution to the wind, people literally jostled with each other to purchase sweets, new clothes and colours. A majority of them were not wearing masks and no one was objecting to it. In one month, the world turned upside down. Almost every mohalla in UP now has covid case and many houses have reported fatalities too. Then, to add to the troubles, many attended the Maha Kumbh and came back sick.
So, what went wrong? Was it a failure of the Government or the people? For me, it is a failure of both — the Government and the people. Experts at John Hopkins Medicine believe that human behaviour is a major factor for the second wave of the pandemic. They call it “protocol fatigue” under which people were forced to wear a face mask, wash hands regularly and maintain social distance. In some cases the violators of this norm were penalised and as a result of this, people actually ended up spending about one year inside their homes. Once the situation eased people came out and started celebrating life believing that everything was normal. The Government, too, lowered its guard. Though the senior leaders and doctors warned that covid had not gone away, the Government allowed opening of schools, the restrictions on parties and social gatherings were lifted and political activities like elections started. The infrastructure which the Government had built in the last one year was dismantled. The ICCC, which was the bulwark in disseminating information about covid cases and was the only tool to remain in touch with patients was dismantled too. The staff was curtailed and the telephone lines were restricted. In this scenario when the second wave struck UP, the administration was caught unawares.
When the tandav of death was going on in the cities, the villages were busy with Panchayat elections. The Teachers’ Association says 706 teachers, who were deployed in the election duty, died of covid. Was it preventable? Yes, it was. In 1991 after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the Lok Sabha election was postponed for a month. If that election could have been postponed, what prevented the State Election Commission or the State Government from postponing the Panchayat election?
The Government argues that Panchayat elections are held under the direction of the High Court, but the State Government could have moved the Supreme Court. There is a fear that the Corona has now spread into the villages because of the Panchayat election. The Government has started screening and testing the villagers to arrest the spread. How much it will succeed in doing this, only time will tell.
The Writer is Executive Director (News), The Pioneer, Lucknow. The views expressed are personal.
