Coronavirus Part 32, Heartfelt Tribute to First Line Of Defence or Covid Warriors

 

             The covid-19 daily infections in the country are waning for some time. The trend has been the same this past week as well. The average number of cases in the last week is around 2 lakh and it is 2.75 lakh the previous week. From the peak numbers 20 days back, this has reduced by half which is a good progress. If the same momentum is continued, the virus can be broken into pieces sooner than later. But 2 lakh is still a big number and this restricted mobility, curfew, lockdown has to continue for few more days till the infections are significantly low. The fight must continue against the virus in all forms and modes possible in a co-ordinated, consolidated, cumulative manner from all sides to emerge successful with limited damage.

            This fight is being waged by the covid warriors in the country while others have little idea of what they are going through. There are chronicles of struggle by these warriors since the last 14 months. Whoever was employed in this frontline domain in the country - doctors, nurses, Junior doctors, pharmacists, lab workers, anganwadi, asha workers and several other streams have been directly playing with the fire since the last year. These are around 1.9 crore covid warriors who are responsible to keep us safe. This is around 1 in 100 is a frontline worker, working in different capacities since the pandemic broke loose.

            While everyone else has seen reduced activity, these warriors are laced with huge work testing their limits. Still there are no hikes in what they are earning since the last 1 year. On top of it, they are severely underpaid or meagrely paid. A young MBBS intern working in gruelling shifts facing heavy viral loads in PPE kits bearing the summer heat is being paid 12000 per month. Same is the case with nurses and low-level staff who work with positive patients day-in and day-out. They are greater than the soldiers on the border for leading an uncertain life while giving certainty to rest of us. Those who are putting double efforts and seeing us hale and healthy have sorry tales to tell. Some or all of their family members are affected by this virus, face severe resource crunch and mechanically leading a robotic life.

            A few covid-positive frontline workers are still working in the duty with mild or no symptoms. I spoke to one of them as if talking to a normal person and shocked to know about this later that he is covid-positive. No one would be permitted to enter the vicinity of a positive patient since the air around him also has virus. Any other person would be reprimanded before taking such step. But these frontline warriors are bravely engaged in the battle in the path they had chosen for a career. I am telling this since I worked with few of them in the past few weeks and came to know of the experience firsthand. A pat in the back and words of appreciation doesn’t suffice for their work. If there is any gratitude, they should be given higher wages, epidemic performance bonus and everything required to cheer them up. It is a good investment to fight the pandemic for the remaining time.

            When I mention co-ordinated effort, most of us should pitch in as health-care volunteers working on the frontlines to decimate the enemy completely. Many hands make the work easy and finish it quickly. Whoever is spirited and willing to volunteer should be given work and a vaccine to ease the load of these warriors. Anyone should be willing to pick up the gun and fire bullets at the virus. I got an opportunity to volunteer as a frontline warrior. To be honest, I couldn’t serve for few days at a stretch for few hours and came to know how difficult this job is. Their workload is huge and they are not at all operating like any normal person.

            A doctor asked – ‘Are you a covid-positive patient’, when I went to meet him at a public health centre. I was awe-struck by his responsibility, bravery, sacrifice to meet the poor positive patients, in-person, every day, around a table and counsel them appropriately. What does an infected poor patient does. He is clueless till someone treats him and gives medicines at a government centre.  In the same way, every nurse is interacting with positive patients for several minutes in close vicinity. There should be a detailed review of the work that is being done by every one of these warriors and a hefty compensation should be paid for all the risks being taken. India has extremely low fatality rate because of the timely, untiring work being done by these frontline staff. Augmenting it, if a volunteer put in the efforts and do some good work, he can save a precious life. This is very much required in this time. To paraphrase, the entity responsible for paying salary to the covid warriors should hike their compensation by a huge margin for their self-less service since a year and many outsiders should pitch in the battle to destroy the enemy completely.

           India needs to prioritise its investments for a greater reward. First importance has to be given to the prevention which is vaccination, second importance has to be given to curing which is boosting up the frontline warriors. The frontline warriors should be given all the material, resources, curing medicines to their possession. This multipronged strategy would drop a nuclear bomb on the virus. Any responsible country does this with utmost urgency.  Any money spent on this is negligible when compared to the loss accrued due to a lockdown. But here we are, with limited resources, personnel, unavailability of vaccine waging a battle against a sophisticated, mutating enemy. Let us get our priorities right on a war-footing and give all the modern artillery to the warriors in the form of vaccines, medicines, compensation etc.

          A country of the size and density as India needs to strategize well to manage any epidemic. Give all the importance to the two simple words – 1. Prevention 2. Cure for the next few months and we can reap rich benefits in the aftermath. Do a detailed analysis on how to prevent and another one on how to cure. Many steps will emerge and if implemented properly, the country will heave a sigh of relief. This will save the warriors who are saving the people from the past one year. It will be the best cover, insurance we can provide to these brave souls.