The Second Wave: Crisis & Containment

As the coronavirus returns in a more infectious variant, a beleaguered nation struggles to cope with the challenges and keep up its fight

- Sonali Acharjee

On April 13, when former district judge Ramesh Chandra, a resident of Lucknow’s Gomti Nagar, and his wife Madhu had a bout of fever and a sore throat, they got themselves tested for Covid-19. The report found both of them positive. As Madhu’s condition deteriorated over the next two days, the former judge made frantic calls to city hospitals for ambulances and, when none came, called up and pleaded with the district magistrate and even officials in the chief minister’s office—to no avail. His wife died on the morning of April 15. But the ordeal was not over yet. Chandra spent a harrowing time trying to get a hearse to take her body to the crematorium. A weeping Chandra says he spent four hours calling friends in high places before one was sent and he could perform her last rites.