Warriors on the Frontline

How doctors and nurses in hospitals along with assorted health activists and workers on the outside are taking on the Covid-19 crisis head-on and saving lives against all odds

- Naandika Tripathi

After her shift ends at 6 pm at KJ Somaiya Hospital in Sion, Mumbai, Mini enters her two-room home on the fifth floor of a seven-storey building in Kharghar, on the outskirts of Mumbai, some 30 km from the hospital, with tentative and cautious steps. As she ensures that she doesn’t touch anything, her 15-year-old daughter watches from a distance; her mother has told her that they cannot hug each other for some days.

The 48-year-old nursing superintendent has set new rules in the house; she lives alone in a separate room and her routine has also changed. She doesn’t touch anything once she walks through the building gate; her husband is there to help, pressing the lift button to take her home. Mini straightaway heads for a shower and sanitises everything she carries from outside —her uniform, cap and scarf. “Initially it was difficult for us to cope with this new lifestyle, but we don’t have any other option. Not hugging my daughter after returning from work was hard to digest,” shrugs Mini, whose responsibilities at work include delegating nurses to Covid19 patients and making sure that the 90 nurses in her team are taking all the precautions as suggested.