Covid-19 Luckless In Lucknow

The second Covid-19 wave has put Uttar Pradesh’s health care system on the brink of collapse

- Puja Awasthi

A Covid wave of monstrous proportions is sweeping through Uttar Pradesh, which had done a relatively sound job of managing the pandemic’s first onslaught. On April 1, the total number of Covid cases in the state was 6,19,783. The number rose to 6,76,739 on April 10, and to 9,42,511 on April 21. More alarming is the rise in the number of deaths per day—from 48 in the preceding 24 hours on April 10 to 187 on April 21. The districts bearing the greatest burden of these numbers are Lucknow, Prayagraj, Kanpur and Varanasi.

Stories of unbelievable suffering and neglect tumble out every day. One of them is from Dinesh Mehra, a garment exporter who had admitted his mother, Kiran, to T.S. Misra Medical College and Hospital in Lucknow on April 13. Kiran, 76, had tested positive on April 5 and the family had been treating her at home. On April 9, her blood sugar began to shoot up, while the sodium fell. She began hallucinating, prompting the family to admit her to the hospital.

At 4am on April 13, an ambulance picked her up. When the family called her at 10:30am, she said she still had not received breakfast—a dangerous delay for a diabetic.

The well-connected Mehra then made multiple calls, including to the sub-divisional magistrate of the area who personally went to check the situation in the hospital. At 1:38pm, Mehra received a picture of his mother with her first meal of the day.

The next day, there were no calls from the hospital and the family was unable to call her cell phone. Persistent inquiries revealed that the phone and its charger had been stolen. Mehra immediately arranged for a replacement phone to be sent in. Yet, for the next two days, there was again silence.