PHYSICALLY, MENTALLY EXHAUSTED: INDIAN DOCTORS BATTLING THE SECOND COVID-19 WAVE

As India is facing second wave of corona, amid vaccination drive, doctors are sharing their experience of battling second wave of COVID. Everyone, including local administration, doctors, and healthcare workers who are involved in fighting the outbreak at the moment are overworked. Healthcare workers on the frontline are experiencing burnout of another kind when it comes to battling the virus – one entire year after it first recorded in the country. Even as India is in the third phase of its vaccination drive, it is also trying to meet vaccine shortages as reported by many states. Doctors, healthcare workers and frontline workers reported burnout and stress in 2020 due to the pandemic, and they did not have any respite before this second wave hit the country. They are feeling mentally and physically exhausted, as India is experiencing second wave of COVID-19 infections, with several states reporting a surge in the number of coronavirus cases daily. Below shared are some Tweets posted by Doctors requesting people to put on masks, avoid crowding : “Please, please wear masks. I don’t know about other people but I’m physically and mentally exhausted with crazy shifts and calling more deaths than I did in all my years of service combined. If you still don’t care, please go inside COVID units as my proxy. Thanks,” reads a tweet by Dipshikha Ghosh, a doctor in critical care medicine. Dipshikha’s tweet went viral – and following it many doctors all across the country started reporting their stress and burnout, which mirrored what the situation felt like, exactly a year ago. Several doctors also shared what their year had been like, and what coping with the wave had been like. “We are doing everything we can, but we don’t have the same mental strength we had last year,” a doctor told BBC on dealing with the second wave. The national registry of Indian Medical Association (IMA) shows that 747 doctors have died of Covid-19. The highest number of such deaths were from Tamil Nadu (89) and West Bengal (80). This is exhausting for healthcare workers, as they have been fighting for us since year, even if we have vaccine now, but vaccine shortage, and some people are hesitant to get jab, people not wearing masks, public gathering, is what resulted in surge of COVID cases in many states.