On The Frontline, Fighting The Coronavirus

With 53 confirmed cases, Maharashtra now has the highest number of novel coronavirus cases in India. Jyoti Shelar speaks to doctors, medical officers and microbiologists who remain vigilant as the virus continues to spread

- Jyoti Shelar

At 4.30 a.m. on March 1, a flight from Abu Dhabi landed at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai. Among those disembarking from the aircraft was a group of 40 returning from a six-day Dubai Abu Dhabi tour.

The travellers said goodbye to one another and headed home. Some of them, who live in Mumbai, went home by road. Others began their journey to Pune, Yavatmal, Ahmednagar, Beed and Nagpur. Three women, all senior citizens, went to Belgaum in Karnataka. It is now believed that the novel coronavirus, which has spread like wildfire and brought the world to a grinding halt, travelled with them to Maharashtra.

On March 9, a 51-year-old manager from Pune (to protect his identity, let’s call him Praful) and his 42-year-old wife, who were both part of the tour, tested positive for COVID-19. “It was our first foreign tour. Who had thought we would come back to become the index patients of some new kind of virus?” says Praful, who had booked the tour for his 25th wedding anniversary. Praful had saved for over a year and liquidated some of his fixed deposits to pay for the trip that cost ₹85,000 per person. To feel at ease in a new country, the couple also took their 23-year-old daughter along. She too tested positive for COVID-19 the next day, along with the cab driver who ferried them from Mumbai airport to Pune.