Four years after lockdown, frontline workers reflect on pandemic days

In April, Mumbai is typically hot and getting increasingly humid. Manjusha Patil (name changed on request) was making her way back from Covid-19 hospital duty to her apartment in the eastern suburbs of Mumbai.

- SOHINI DAS, ANJALI SINGH & SANKET KOUL

Having already completed a gruelling 12-hour shift, Patil felt exhausted, famished, and parched. She slowly ascended the stairs of her 26-storey building, her apartment situated on the 18th floor.

The housing society had barred her from using the elevator, fearing she might transmit the virus to other residents. "Some of my neighbours were sympathetic, suggesting that if I sanitised the elevator after each use, it should be safe. However, the popular vote was that I avoid the elevator altogether," Patil recounted with a sombre expression.

Patil wasn't the only frontline worker who faced such treatment and ostracisation. Many others weren't even allowed into their colonies. Several stayed back in hospitals. Ambulance drivers slept in their vans. Many contracted the virus, fell ill or died as they tended to patients.

Approaching the fourth anniversary of the Covid-19 lockdown on March 24, some of these frontline workers shared their stories from the pandemic - experiences that they believed had strengthened them and filled them with pride.

India imposed a stringent lockdown when the nationwide Covid-19 cases had barely surpassed 500. By the end of March 2020, cases had exceeded the 1,000mark, and by April, over 10,000 had been reported. The virus was spreading rapidly.

"The greatest concern for us as clinicians was our incomplete understanding of the disease's progression," Patil said. "After the first week, there was a tendency for the disease to worsen. The general public was scared, so I can't fault them for their lack of empathy towards frontline workers."

Struggles and setbacks