A day in the life of a doctors in testing times

Mumbai: The mask digs deep furrows into his face, the shield fogs up his glasses and the PPE suit weighs him down in the humidity. The hours run into one another, uncomfortable and difficult at various levels, but it's all in a day's work for Dr Amol Pawar.

As the second wave of the pandemic ravages, large parts of India, it's about sweat and tears - quite literally - for millions of healthcare workers at the frontline of the war against Covid-19. They have walked the tightrope between looking after patients and trying to dodge infection for more than a year. And it isn't ending anytime soon.

Pawar, obstetrician and gynaecologist at the Nowrosjee Wadia Maternity Hospital in Mumbai's Parel locality, is but one face of India's gravest health crisis yet.

Sometimes gently cradling a newborn baby and comforting a patient and other times conferring with colleagues on a particularly difficult case or counselling relatives, the 44-year-old is a familiar figure for regulars at the 450-bed hospital. There are 35 beds in the Covid ward and 15 in the isolation ward.

Hundreds of Covid patients have passed through the maternity hospital, which had to include a Covid ward last year in May when cases began rising.

"The first case came in mid-April but we transferred the case to the Nair hospital nearby as there were no facilities in our hospital. On May 10, we started a Covid-19 ward. Since then, we've seen around 513 cases in this hospital," Pawar told PTI.

Working at least eight hours a day, six days a week and on call 24X7, he wears his discomfort lightly.

"The eight hours are really packed at the hospital… new admissions, discharges, rounds and monitoring medicines for patients, and now even the vaccination drive. We have to do all this while ensuring we don't contract the virus," he said.