5 years after Covid: 'I am happy if I can climb to the second floor without feeling breathless'

Five years have completely upended the life of 45-year-old Parminder Malhotra.

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From a robust fitness enthusiast, he struggles to climb to his second-floor apartment in West Delhi's Tilak Nagar, his oxygen levels sometimes plummeting to 80 per cent. He's breathless and needs oxygen support whenever pollution levels soar in Delhi and keeps an oxygen cylinder and concentrator on standby. An electrical engineer who vetted construction sites, he now runs an electrical appliances store. Still, he has managed to move on from Covid and two rounds of being on a ventilator. “As long as I can breathe in fresh air from my balcony, I am okay,” says the long Covid survivor.

Malhotra has been a regular visitor to the long Covid clinic at AIIMS, Delhi, ever since he contracted the Delta variant of the virus in 2021. That led to lung fibrosis, a condition characterised by scarring and thickening of lung tissue, making it difficult for the patient to breathe and absorb oxygen. It's a progressive condition that worsens over time, and while there’s no cure, treatments can help manage symptoms and slow down their progression. He now gets a CT scan done every three months to see if he is doing any better. Or worse. “On a routine check-up last week, the doctor told me that I still had patches in my lungs,” says Malhotra. Now his biggest challenge is to climb to the third floor of his apartment block and not feel breathless. “Till date, I feel uneasy for almost 10 minutes after climbing two flights of stairs,” he adds. So he does spirometer exercises and yoga regularly. As part of a test exercise at the AIIMS clinic, he has to blow about 30 balloons one after another.