Shahid Tantray for The Caravan
Paramedical staff conducting ECG on a COVID-19 patient at the General Hospital in Bharuch, Gujarat. Shahid Tantray for The Caravan
Bharuch General Hospital is the largest government-run COVID-19 care center in Gujarat’s Bharuch district. It has 70 beds, most of which are attached to oxygen supply. On 16 April, there was only one doctor at the hospital a 26-year-old junior resident and five nurses. That day, the hospital had seventy-two patients, almost all of whom had severe COVID-19 symptoms. The hospital staff told me that all private hospitals in the district were fully occupied, leaving the general hospital stretched over its capacity despite limited human resources. “On most days, there are at least two doctors attending to patients in one shift, but the past few days it has only been me,” the junior resident said as he shuttled between wards checking on patients’ vitals and adjusting their oxygen flow.