COVID-19

In Part 1 of this series, we found that despite government's claims, Bengaluru has only about 3,500 hospital beds dedicated for COVID treatment. In this part, we explore why private hospitals have not complied with the government orders to give up beds and treat COVID patients. In a recent webinar on COVID, Viswa Mohan Tripahi, a resident of Mantri Alpyne apartment, narrated their ordeal trying to find a hospital bed for another resident who had developed symptoms. "The person's oxygen levels were dropping fast. They dropped to the 80s and we couldn't find a hospital for treatment. Everyone was asking…

[This article is part of the Bengaluru Moving series, in which citizens share their vision for BMTC post COVID. This series is pubished in collaboration with Radio Active’s #BengaluruMoving campaign.] Before the onset of COVID, BMTC was already struggling with very low share of traffic, and personal vehicles were clogging Bengaluru roads. Towards the end of this article, I have mentioned a few Key Success Factors (KSFs) that would help BMTC increase ridership. While these KSFs are still important, BMTC has been facing a new set of challenges with the onset of COVID, and hence must think of additional measures…

The COVID-19 outbreak has slowed down Solid Waste Management (SWM) across the city, with all the composting and segregation centres in 162 locations closed. Most residential areas and other gated communities have struggled to segregate their waste during the lockdown due to the lack of in-house waste management facilities and staff. Awareness around the subject is low, and the motivation to initiate the process is also missing. However, in the midst of this, The Atrium, an apartment complex in Thiruvanmiyur has managed to keep the operations of waste management going. The Atrium community started waste segregation with a systematic and…

Historically there have been many ways of isolating patients with infectious diseases. The ill can be removed to a place where they cannot infect others. If they are treated at home the residence itself can carry a warning sign – a method that has been in place since the time of the plagues. The most disturbing however, and even traumatic for those living in such houses, is the prospect of being barricaded in. And yet, this is precisely what the city’s civic body is doing, and this is now being copied by other cities too. The modus operandi, so we learn,…

Tulip Brian Miranda, a Corporator of Mumbai’s H-East ward's Kalina area, has been running a community kitchen since the enforcement of the lockdown. Every day, she distributes 1,000 food packets to needy families. But when the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Maharashtra government decided to initiate food distribution, Miranda wasn’t consulted about the diversity of her ward. “I was simply asked to inform them what my requirements were,” says Miranda, a member of Indian National Congress party.   As the local area representatives, Corporators are imagined to be a citizen’s first point of redressal over an inaccessible MLA or…

Since COVID cases started surging in Bengaluru, we've heard of several reports of patients not finding hospital beds or being denied treatment. Most recently, even a COVID doctor at Chikkamudavadi PHC (Primary Health Centre) in Ramanagara district, Dr Manjunath S T, succumbed to the virus after being turned away by three Bengaluru hospitals. Despite this, the government has maintained that there are enough COVID beds in the city. Towards the end of June, government had ordered that half the beds in all private hospitals would be reserved for COVID patients. On July 7, Dr K Sudhakar, Minister of Medical Education,…

Every evening, A M Aravind, a birdwatcher in Madipakkam, ensures he spends at least an hour hanging around his balcony or terrace. The lockdown may have temporarily halted many of his regular activities, but not his bird watching hobby. Though he could not travel to the woodland edges or the marshes, Aravind has spotted over 35 species in his neighbourhood habitat over the past three months.  Like Aravind, many city residents have taken to balcony birding or backyard birding this season, to enjoy a break from the mundane routine of the lockdown. The high-pitched, loud and persistent calls of the…

The lone Cafe Viibee nestled amidst a rubber plantation, in Kakkanad, Kochi has been silent for months now. With just a few mobile tables and chairs, this cafe had been a buzzing hangout space, frequented by a young crowd of professionals or students in and around the area, but has been closed ever since the COVID-19 pandemic led to a nation-wide lockdown.  Co-owner, actor Byon V K says, “The expectation was that the lockdown would last for a month only, but now after all these months, we have to get back to business somehow. Earlier we did not have home…

“Read up. You really should. There is nothing new under the sun. It has all been done before.” These are famous lines from Arthur Conan Doyle’s 'A Study in Scarlet'. A problem or its solution have all transpired before. But have we missed the lessons? It has been nine months since the first case of COVID-19 was reported from Wuhan, China in November 2019. The problem took a life of its own and knocked on India’s shores through Kerala in January 2020. It became Bengaluru's problem in March of 2020. While Bengaluru started out well in keeping the pandemic under…

Recently, Citizen consumer and civic Action Group (CAG) conducted an online dialogue on Chennai’s Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) bus service. The dialogue was part of a national campaign (Lakh ko 50) by the Sustainable Urban Mobility Network (SUM Net India), which asks the government to ensure that there are at least 50 buses per lakh population in our cities. The idea was to hear from commuters to understand what is needed to improve the bus service. Transportation experts also spoke on how the MTC’s fleet strength is inadequate for the number of passengers it serves, and pointed out that there…