New Delhi: With more than 4.73 lakh cases of which over 1.86 lakh are active, India is now the fourth worst-hit country in the world.
Healthcare systems in multiple states are crumbling under the weight of the pandemic and testing continues to be a matter of concern and controversy. Furthermore, even though the economy has opened up, many workers and vendors are struggling to get back on their feet, given the lack of consumers.
Through all this, ThePrint’s reporters and photojournalists have been travelling across the length and breadth of India to bring you eyewitness accounts of how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted, and continues to impact, the lives of the people.
This week, ThePrint’s teams travelled across Assam and Andhra Pradesh. They visited textile hubs and hospitals, spoke to silk weavers struggling to make ends meet and state government officials fighting to contain the spread of the virus.
Strict quarantine and a textile industry on the brink in Assam
In the last three months, Assam’s textile industry has incurred losses of around Rs 130 crore, Rs 100 crore of it in the village of Sualkuchi alone. Located just about 30 km from Guwahati, Sualkuchi is one of the world’s largest weaving centres, and is known for silk weaves — eri, muga and paat.
ThePrint’s Angana Chakrabarti spent some time in Sualkuchi this week, where, although some of the looms are functioning, there isn’t nearly enough demand for the weaves. Before the lockdown, these weavers would work 10 hours a day, but now they have just enough work to occupy a couple of hours, Lakhyadhar Dekha, a 40-year-old weaver, told ThePrint. He used to earn around Rs 10,000, but now he earns half that.
At the other end of the chain, retail business owners are stuck with piles of unsold clothes. The lockdown was also imposed right before Bohag Bihu, a major festival in Assam, and the industry lost out on its best season as a result. Read more here.
Assam had also imposed “ruthless” quarantine and community surveillance measures, as described by Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. Upon arrival in Assam, passengers are taken to a swab collection centre for testing and then sent to institutional quarantine for four days, until their test results come back. A seven-day period of home quarantine is required if the tests are negative, and more if positive.
This strict protocol seems to have paid off — the state has one of the lowest Covid-19 cases in the country, with 5,586 cases. The state has also ramped up its testing capacity, and has so far conducted more than 3 lakh tests — among the highest in India.
Assam Health Secretary Samir Sinha told ThePrint that the situation is like a polluted river that has to be cleaned before the filth spreads further and it is too late to contain it. Read more here.
Andhra Pradesh in control, Telangana spiralling
Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh’s Minister for Industries and Commerce Mekapati Goutham Reddy, told ThePrint’s Aneesha Bedi that the state is capable of handling 20,000 Covid cases per day. The state’s testing capacity is currently at 15,000 per day and the minister said this can be increased thanks to adequate manufacturing of medical equipment.
He explained that the state government had started working on an action plan for the coronavirus pandemic as early as December 2019, when India had not reported a single case. When the chief scientist at the Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone, a medical devices manufacturing park, brought up the issue of inadequate testing infrastructure, the chief minister wasted no time in sanctioning the money, Reddy said.
He added that their TruNat test kit is more accurate and delivers faster results than the antibody testing kit. Read more here.
In stark contrast is the neighbouring state of Telangana, which has been roundly criticised for its mishandling of the pandemic, with abysmally low testing and high mortality rates. Hyderabad alone has contributed to 71 per cent of the state’s cases and 86 per cent of the deaths. At the city’s Gandhi Hospital, ThePrint saw that a patient was being taken on a stretcher from the emergency ward to the Covid ward in the pouring rain, without even an umbrella to protect her.
Director, Public Health, Dr G. Srinivas Rao told ThePrint that it was unfair to compare the two states’ handling of the crisis since Andhra Pradesh did not have to deal with the massive cluster that Hyderabad has become.
Earlier, the state had been pulled up by the High Court for not testing dead bodies despite ICMR guidelines. It has also maintained a policy of not testing asymptomatic people. Read more here.
Also read: Ahmedabad’s high fatality rate, ‘ruthless quarantine’ in Assam & AP’s mobile testing centres