-Prologue-
Kolkata, Thursday, January 23, 2020
The student had reached kolkata on the night of January 23. She had travelled to Kochi the next day from where she went to her hometown in Thrissur.
She was 20 years, healthy but was worried. She had reasons to be.
Next day, she walked to the nearest primary health centre at Mathilakam to give her declaration.
She had been studying in the Wuhan University of china. She had left the country in a hurry as the rumour of an unknown pneumonia had just started spreading in her university. As she travelled from Wuhan to Kunming by train, she had encountered a lot of people around her in the railway station and train suffering with such respiratory symptoms.
Of course, she did not have any symptoms. But she wanted to report. She was advised to sleep in a separate room, limit contact with rest of the family members and not to venture out into public places for two weeks at least.
3 days after She developed dry cough and sore throat.
Thrissur, Monday, January 27, 2020
On Monday January 27, the 20 year old lady decided to visit the Emergency Department in General Hospital, Thrissur, Kerala.
An oropharyngeal swab was obtained on January 27, 2020 and was sent to the ICMR-National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, for any respiratory bug. A real time reverse transcription PCR test was conducted on her swab. In those days it was such a special lab procedure that it only a few special labs had the facility. It was used only when a special situation demands. The medical authorities of Thrissur regarded this to be one such special condition.
NIV Pune, Thursday, January 30, 2020
On January 30, 2020, the director of NIV, Pune was roused from his afternoon siesta. Irritated he flicked his cell phone open to scan for the message and then stopped short. His hand trembled and his heart beat faster. He was holding the first Covid positive report of his life time in his hand. He simply couldn’t believe his eyes. he had to double check the test. And he had to put a country of 1 billion into high alert. He put in call to cabinet minister of health and clutched glass of water to stop his fingers from trembling.
“Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that can cause illnesses ranging from the ordinary common cold to serious respiratory emergencies.” The lab advised.
On January 31, 2020 the First Covid positive case of the country was admitted at the Government Medical College, Thrissur, Kerala. They have vacated a whole wing of the hospitals consisting of cabins for her.
Neither the lab people nor the staff of the general hospital could have dreamt in their wildest imagination that in the next few days this little virus would hold the whole nation into ransom. It would shut down markets, gyms, temples, mosques and all public spaces of the whole country for full year. It would push 1.3 billion peoples indoors and bring institutions like Indian railways and Airport Authority of India into a grinding halt. It will make millions of Indians working away from home job less and force them to walk the whole breadth of the country barefoot to their villages because no vehicles were running and they had no jobs left in their work places. Even their own villages would not allow them to their own homes. Even the deads would loose their due respect.
This tiny virus, 10000 of which can sit on a pinhead, ate away the social character of humanity. Clubs, picnics, parks get togethers vanished. Marriages and death rites became distant memories. handshake was deleted from human courtesy world replaced by Namaste.
Bhubaneswar, Sunday, January 31, 2021
In the one year that followed, one crore ( 10,633,339) Indians suffered on account of this small virus. Unfortunately, 153,088 of them succumbed to the virus. 150,000 Indians who on that New Years day of 2020 did not know that they won’t be able to bid farewell to that fateful year.
But the virus also empowered the health care system of this country like nothing else. It is a common experience of any medical professional of my time is that even though we could pick up each bacterium and parasite by its individual name, but when it comes to viruses, they never had individual names. From measles, to common cold, fever to runny nose all are thrown into one omnibus basket – “Viral fever, Don’t ask names please”. It is a miracle that in one year post this event, we have already completed 190,148,024 tests for viruses only. We have brought testing of viruses to bed side. Soon we shall be able test a virus in our drawing room. A rarity in the previous year. Today even our children tell us about CRISPR technology which probably Ph.D. in microbiology of our time didn’t know.
Advantage India
Till date we would look at the US and European nations for any new thing in the vaccine world. All new things should come to us from across the distant sea imported. Today India has brought out two of the most effective vaccines against the virus. One and half million health care workers have already been vaccinated till this day. both the vaccines have been proved safe, effective and will be saving million lives not only in India but in countries outside India. They have been researched, tried and manufactured completely in our country.
-Epilogue-
The Sars Cov-2 virus had been an enigma. It is so different from any other virus. It has been a bane as well as a huge boon to our nation.
What a day it was: January 31, 2020.
Curse it or fear it, it is going to stay in our memory for a pretty long time.
Dr Ramakanta's Ideas 