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Train journeys to the south an eye-opener, scramble for hospital beds in Mumbai turns fatal

A recap of some of the best on-ground reporting of the Covid-19 pandemic from ThePrint’s reporters and photojournalists.

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New Delhi: Over the past 10 weeks that India has been in lockdown, ThePrint journalists have been travelling across the country to bring you accurate, on-ground eyewitness accounts of the coronavirus trail in India.

This week, teams of reporters and photojournalists are in Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai to find out the impact of the virus and lockdown as well as how state governments and hospitals have been handling the crisis.

They spoke to government officials, hospital authorities, Covid patients and relatives of those who didn’t survive, and the many who are simply trying to get home.


Also read: Quarantine in Vadodara, walking in Dharavi, circle of life in UP — stories of hope & despair


Such a long journey

Revathi Krishnan and Manisha Mondal are currently in Chennai, while Aneesha Bedi and Suraj Singh Bisht are tracking Covid-19 in Telangana. On their train journeys, they met people from different walks of life, from a retired Army officer to an IAS aspirant, an oncologist who had not met her sons in more than four months and a student travelling with her baby daughter.

ThePrint’s journalists said the journey was an eye-opener. While they obsessively sanitised themselves and their bags, most passengers around them were unconcerned about the rules. They also found that the rules for thermal screening of passengers were ignored at the New Delhi Railway Station, with authorities not even conducting a temperature check. While some passengers wore masks diligently, the train to Chennai was sanitised only twice in the 28-hour journey.

Several passengers were dissatisfied with the level of hygiene in the trains, with many pointing out to ThePrint’s journalists that there was no water or sanitiser in the washrooms. On arrival in Chennai and Secunderabad, though, the reporters found all the rules were strictly followed. Physical distancing was enforced right from the moment people disembarked the trains, and passengers were given food, water and sanitisers.

Read more about their journeys here.

In Chennai, which accounts for more than 12,000 of Tamil Nadu’s 19,372 coronavirus cases, Krishnan and Mondal visited containment zones and spoke to Health Secretary Beela Rajesh, Chennai Corporation official G. Prakash and Manuraj S. from the opposition DMK party, to understand why Tamil Nadu has such a high number of cases and how the state plans to cope in the future. Read more here.

In Hyderabad, Bedi got an exclusive interview with Telangana Health Minister, Eatala Rajender, who defended his government’s handling of the pandemic and said that accusations of low testing, which have come from the state’s High Court as well as from the Centre, are inaccurate. Read the full interview here.


Also read: Worst yet to come, Centre will realise nothing’s left for poor as economy reopens: Owaisi


Race for a hospital bed can be fatal

The state of Maharashtra has almost 40,000 cases of the novel coronavirus so far, with its capital city Mumbai accounting for more than 33,000 cases. The densely populated city has even run out of hospital beds, which means that a number of Covid patients are running from pillar to post trying to find a hospital that will admit them. Many of them don’t make it to one in time, or die trying.

Andheri resident Avinash Kathare told ThePrint’s Swagata Yadavar and Soniya Agrawal that after his brother-in-law complained of breathlessness, his family spent half a day at Cooper Hospital, but had no luck. They had to arrange oxygen support at home, but when his condition worsened, they tried to get into Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital. The staff said he might have Covid, but said the hospital had no room for him. Kathare tried 20 hospitals before he found a bed at KEM four days later. It took six hours to shift him there, where he died.

And he isn’t the only one to face this ordeal.

ThePrint visited state-run hospitals in the city and spoke to municipal officials, doctors and healthcare activists to find out just how they plan to cope with the situation. Read more about the city’s battle with Covid here.


Also read: Dharavi is not just fighting coronavirus, but also dirty toilets and battered image


 

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