Among the 99 who have lost their lives, 57 of them are General Practitioners.
On Wednesday, when the Indian Medical Association issued a "red alert" to healthcare professionals across India urging them to ensure all safety measures while performing their duties, it said 99 doctors across India have lost their lives to COVID-19. Among the 99 who have lost their lives, 57 of them are General Practitioners.
56-year-old Dr Milind Vairagi was among those who lost their lives. He was working as a General Practitioner at his clinic in Mumbai's Kalyan-Dombivali area which is currently Mumbai's biggest hotspot with total 9,000 cases.
He got infected while on duty and developed his first symptoms of mild fever on June 24. Over the course of the next few days he got his test done and was admitted in a hospital but his condition kept deteriorating and he died on July 8.
His wife, 53-year-old Rita and 26-year-old daughter Madhura are also doctors and so are 25 other family members. His wife too is a general practitioner while daughter is a dentist. The family says that he kept serving people even when others stopped, fearing Covid.
Dr Madhura Vairagi, his daughter, told NDTV, "He was a General Practitioner for 30 years. Many of the doctors in our area kept their clinics closed. But my father used to go even on Sundays. We are a family of doctors and despite the loss the other 25 too who are spread across the country are serving people in the midst of this pandemic. It is my humble request to the government that they should provide some sort of compensation to all the doctors because if this continues many doctors will refrain from their duties. My request is also that there should be more investment in the healthcare sector normally also and not just during pandemics."
Majority of those who died are general practitioners as they are the first line of medical care available at the local level.
Dr Ravi Wankhedkar who is currently the President of the SAARC Medical Association and former National President of Indian Medical Association told NDTV, "If anybody has any doubts that they have developed Covid they first approach the general practitioner in the area and while the doctor will take the basic precautions of gloves and masks they won't have the kind of advanced setup that a Covid dedicated hospital may have. This makes them vulnerable and they deal with such a high number of patients, many of whom may even be Corona carriers unknowingly. 99 is just the figures collated by IMA. The actual figures must be way higher because IMA only has 3.25 lakh members out of which only 10% doctors are in government hospitals, rest are all private doctors. India has a total of 11 lakh doctors so there is a large chunk whose data is not even being recorded."
According to the IMA, total 1,302 doctors across India have been infected with COVID-19. 73 of the doctors who died were above the age of 50. 19 were in the age group of 35-50 and seven were below 35 years. The IMA has suggested that doctors across India should take following measures:
1) A feedback system from the doctors, employees and public needs to be in place
2) Working hours should be tempered by concerns of safety
3) Providing for PPEs, physical distancing and sanitisers should be monitored on a daily basis
Dr Rajan Sharma, President of Indian Medical Association said to NDTV , "We first wanted to introspect in-house. We have told doctors that recovery has to be the norm and death an exception. A safe and sound setup for the doctor would mean safety of his patients too. And people have to understand that you should not hide your symptoms from your doctor."