Even after her entire family of seven members was infected with Covid-19 in April, Mita Wadhwa helped a team of volunteers deliver around 600 breakfast packets daily at 27 nursing homes in Bhopal for weeks, and worked at Bhadbhada crematorium, which was flooded with bodies by mid-April.
Mita Wadhwa, who was part of a group working during the second wave of pandemic, along with others were felicitated by a volunteer organisation – ‘Dream Bhopal, Green Bhopal’ on Saturday.
Wadhwa told News18.com after she and her husband contracted the infection, the entire family too had Covid-19, and in the midst, her father-in-law passed away. As they took his body to Bhadbhada crematorium, she was astounded seeing the situation there. Several bodies laid with no relatives to mourn or take part in the final rites.
Crematorium secretary Mamtesh Sharma asked Wadhwa to help especially help who were bring in the bodies. Wadhwa said she began visiting the facility daily with her husband till May-end.
“We started delivering food at mega hospitals and soon realised there were too many who were coming in with help, so we started delivering breakfast packets at nursing homes, around 27, at every nook and corner of the city as there was hardly any facility at these places for offering food to patients and attendants,” Wadhwa said.
She said she would travel 50-60 km daily and the team would distribute 500-600 breakfast packets, including those for nursing home staff working at night. “It was a task involving long hours but we were never tired and were only worried if we missed anyone needing help…”
The community kitchen is run by Wadhwa and Puja Iyengar and the team distributed around 35,000 food packs in the city in 50 days.
There were others who went beyond the call of duty to help out those in distress including Edward John, a driver of hearse van of Gurudwara Singh Sabha. He worked relentlessly carrying bodies from one corner to the other. As the more deaths were reported, John worked tirelessly ferrying the bodies to crematoriums and graveyards even in cars, auto rickshaws and SUVs.
Another, Dr Sangeeta Tank, the in charge of Covid-19 control room at Smart City office, and her team were consulting those staying in isolation after contracting the infection. At a time, the number of home isolated patients rose to 12,000 in the city and Dr Tank was taking care of their medicines, hospital beds, oxygen and other immediate requirements.
Dr Harshita Singh, in charge of Fever Clinic and Counselling, dealt with 200-300 patients every day. She counselled those in home isolation. She also arranged hospital beds for women for their child delivery during the second wave, and blood plasma.
There are people like ANM Gayatri Shrivastava who has vaccinated around 61,000 people in the city. Starting from January, Shrivastava used to inoculate around 300 people daily. Others like Raju Pandey, part of CM Helpline, worked for 20 to 22 hours a day helping those contacting for aid in the distressing times.
MP Tourism Corporation was also hailed in the event for the innovation in which the corporation had started country’s first drive in vaccination where the locals were allowed to drive in their four wheelers in an open ground and get vaccinated inside their cars without fearing any infection during the process.
Medical education minister Vishwas Sarang praised the Covid-19 warriors and said amidst despair during the second wave, the volunteers showed a positive side and motivated many.
“A small event like this cannot honour each and every Covid-19 warrior but such events disseminate a positive message of inspiration to the society,” said Sarang.
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