No Hospital, People Get Covid Care On Cots Under Tree In UP Village

The devastating second wave of pandemic, which has brought even hospitals in big cities to breaking point, is ripping through the country's vast rural hinterland where healthcare is threadbare.

In a village in Uttar Pradesh engulfed by COVID-19, the sick lie on cots under a tree, glucose drips hanging from a branch. Cows graze all around, while syringes and empty medicine packets are strewn on the ground. There is no doctor or health facility in Mewla Gopalgarh, a 90-minute drive from the national capital Delhi. There is a government hospital nearby but it has no available beds and the villagers say they cannot afford private clinics. Instead, village practitioners of alternative medicine have set up an open-air clinic where they distribute glucose and other remedies to patients with symptoms of COVID-19. Some believe lying under the neem tree, known for its medicinal properties, will raise their oxygen levels. There is no scientific basis for this belief or for some of the other remedies being offered.