CORPORATE CITIZEN CLAPS FOR THE INNOVATIVE PROPOSITION UNDERTAKEN BY THE INDIAN RAILWAYS (IR) TO CONVERT OVER 5000 TRAIN COACHES INTO QUARANTINE FACILITIES AND MAKING AVAILABLE AN ADDITIONAL 10,500 ISOLATION BEDS TO ACCOMMODATE COVID-19 PATIENTS

According to railway officials, “Around 5,000 beds in 17 dedicated hospitals and 33 isolated hospital blocks in railway hospitals have been identified for treating COVID-19 patients.” Despite the entire nation in lockdown mode and with limited manpower availability, it is a feat indeed that the Railways have converted 50% of their target 5000 coaches into quarantine zones. This has made available a total of 40,000 isolation beds, ready for all possible contingencies. An average of 375 coaches per day were converted into isolation facilities with the coach makeovers being carried out at 133 locations nationwide. These will help quarantine individuals who show positive symptoms to the infection or have had previous travel history. Of the identified 5000 conventional coaches being converted into isolation beds, around 2800 are III-tier non-AC sleeper units. These quarantine friendly coaches have been re-designed whereby the middle berths have been taken out to make ample rooms for the patients. These trains will benefit state governments in containing the spread of the infection. Although immobile, these coaches will have the provision of being moved out of the tracks, under conditions if and when the need arises. The IR Board is also speaking to healthcare experts in understanding healthcare requisites within the transformed coaches while also taking stock of their pantry cars to ensure meals for quarantined patients. The Railway Board had called upon all its zonal authorities for converting around 20,000 coaches of Indian Railways into ‘isolation’ Covid-19 wards and in conjunction with the Armed Forces Medical Services and Ayushman Bharat for setting up of these quarantine coaches. In other related efforts, the Railways have supplemented the government’s initiatives by manufacturing some six lakhs reusable face masks and over 40,000 litres of hand sanitiser. They are also running round the clock service to distribute over 8.5 lakh cooked meals to the needy since March via its active IRCTC-based kitchens. If manned hygienically, IR’s success in their idea will have made its own ‘Covid’- history!

CORPORATE CITIZEN SLAPS THE NEWLY UNLEASHED ‘XENOPHOBIC’ TENDENCIES GRIPPING INDIA AND THE WORLD AS NEW FORMS OF HARASSMENT COME UPFRONT AMIDST THE CORONA CRISIS

India, with its historically ingrained social stigmas is now battling apathy or ignorance against healthcare and airline workers who have been shamed and assaulted in their line of duty. This ‘trend’ of frontline workers being physically and verbally abused tantamount to a vicious cycle stemming from a ‘fear psychosis’ amongst the general public in contracting the infection from healthcare workers and in turn getting stigmatised. The most recent healthcare uproar was from a man in Hyderabad whose son was quarantined based on Covid-19 symptoms. He assaulted a junior resident doctor at the state-run Osmania General Hospital built on his understanding that his son was placed in close proximity of a Covid positive patient. Instead of seeking clarity, does the father’s ‘mindless’ action justify the security breach of medical professionals who are already overwhelmed in their fight against the pandemic? The case of Indore based Trupti Katdare actually shook the nation when she and a group of public-health workers tracked down a Covid positive man in a slum when the mob attacked them. The man in question cursed and accused them of trying to take him away. The case of nurse, Lisha Jose adds another dimension to ‘stigmatisation’ of public health carers. A nurse with a Delhi-based super speciality hospital tested positive for Covid-19 and required to go into quarantine. A pregnant Lisha had to tolerate the ‘stares’ of her immediate neighbours as she left for the hospital. She was emotionally drained out especially when many got busy with their mobile phone cameras to shoot a video of her. “I felt like a criminal being taken away… What wrong had I done? I only did my duty,” she said. Despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government encouraging people to rally around frontline workers against the virus fight, the scenario has given rise to a new set of social ‘untouchables’ amidst the crisis. “We are not scared of infections; we were mentally prepared for that as an occupational hazard. But getting beaten up, that was not something we mentally prepared for. That is not an occupational hazard we signed up for,” said Nirmalya Mohapatra, a senior doctor at a Delhi-based public hospital. While fears are not unfounded, the nation needs ‘healing’ of another kind!