The village without a doctor in India is coping with the Covid-19 crisis on its own

Chogath, a village in the western state of Gujarat (India), which has seen a rise in Covid-19 cases and deaths, is fighting a pandemic on its own when there is no source of funding. Any medical help.
Seek help in vain

In the remote Indian village of Chogath, Jeetu, a local pharmacist, has become the only source of medical assistance for people with Covid-19. The second wave of Covid-19 in India has devastated major cities and parts of this country. The hospitals have run out of oxygen and medicine. Jeetu, local pharmacist and volunteer doctor in Chogath village. Photo: CNN But in rural states and remote villages, the workforce of doctors and clinics is even scarcer. The people here have to fight the epidemic on their own without receiving any medical care. Chogath is a farming community in the western state of Gujarat. It is home to about 7,400 people, according to the 2011 census. Earlier this week, Mr. Jeetu said that there were about 500-600 cases of Covid-19 in Chogath village. Villagers also reported a sudden increase in the number of people dying from the disease. However, there were not any doctors or medical staff in the village. Meanwhile, the nearest city is more than an hour’s drive from the village. There are clinics in a number of neighboring towns, but these also run out of beds and other necessary medical equipment. As the number of illnesses and deaths in Chogath village spiked, Mr. Jeetu took on the role of a doctor. With his experience as a pharmacist, Mr. Jeetu prescribes medicine and supplies oxygen to the patients in the village. “No one is here, there is no medical center, no doctors, no nurses. There are no medical facilities in this village. So I settled in the way I saw fit, ”Mr. Jeetu said. India is facing a severe Covid-19 crisis that takes place everywhere, from the capital New Delhi to the smallest villages and towns. The second wave of Covid-19 has made millions of people in India sick in the past month and thousands dying every day. With more than 23 million cases of Covid-19, India is now the second most affected country in the world after the US epidemic, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. In Chogath, the lack of medical resources forced people to travel to surrounding towns in hopes of finding hospital beds. Dinesh Makwana, a resident of the village of Chogath, said he tried to put his father with Covid-19 into four different hospitals in the neighboring towns, but there were no vacancies. He had no choice but to bring his father, who had been diagnosed with a serious illness, back home. “All villagers are afraid” “We were shocked by the second wave of Covid-19. The whole village was very shocked, everyone was scared, ”Mr. Makwana said. Makwana says that many people in the village died from Covid-19. “I am very scared. I worry my father will die, ”he said. Makwana tried to send her father with Covid-19 to four different hospitals in the neighboring towns, but all had no vacancies. Photo: CNN Jeetu has provided some medicine to help stabilize Makwana’s father. However, the Makwana family’s troubles are not over as his sister and mother are also sick. “I am very worried about my family. If I die my family will be broken. I’m not afraid of death, I’m just worried about my wife, ”said Makwana’s father, Jivraj. Girjashankar, 70, a resident of Chogath, helped families in the village cremate deceased loved ones. He cut wood from the forests and loaded it on tractors and drove it back to the village, preparing for cremation for the deceased. Mr. Girjashankar said that each year about 30 people in Chogath village died, but only in the past month they cremated 90 bodies. The Indian government attempted to cope with the Covid-19 crisis by sending oxygen supplies to various states and distributing aid from abroad. However, the scarcity of medical supplies means most aid will go to the most populous and most affected states. Therefore, small villages like Chogath have to fight the pandemic on their own. “We don’t have doctors. We have no way to get to the bigger hospitals, ”said Girjashankar. Jeetu said he was “very angry” at the fact that people here do not receive medical care and lack of help from the authorities. “What can I do by myself? We don’t have a solution, the people here are very poor, ”said Mr. Jeetu. The villagers of Chogath had no choice but to wait for help. “All the people in the village are scared. It has been 15-20 days no one left the house. Everyone feels scared, ”Makwana said.