전세계가 Covid-19에 아직도 전전긍긍하고 있다. 처음 Wuhan에서 첫환자가 발생한 이후로 확진자수는 계속 늘어나고 있지만, 각나라마다 뾰쪽한 해결책이 없어, 정부에서 내리는 지침은 Gathering을 하지 말라는 Decree외에는 딴 방법이 없어, 각나라의 국민들, 각나라의 정부의 리더들은 요즘 죽을 맛으로 국정을 살피고 있다고 하겠다.
한국같은 경우에는, 이번 전염병 방역외에도, 항상 북괴와 대치하고있는 군사적 충돌가능성 때문에 더많은 에너지 소모가 많다고 하겠다고 할수 있지만, 이와중에도, 김정은의 한마디 명령(?)이면, 문재인 정부는 "Yes Sir"로 화답하는 꼴딱서니를 보이고 있어, 국민들은 더 많은 어려움에서 헤어나질 못하고 있는데, 그위에 소위 말하는 금수저들의 행패는 더 국민들의 가슴을 아프게 하고 있다고 하겠다.
전세계적으로, 잘사는 나라이든, 못사는 나라이든간에, 특별한 치료책이 없기에 더 모이는것을 막는쪽으로 가는것을 이해는 하겠는데, 확진자의 발견에서는 선진국과 미개발국사이에서는 많은 차이가 나고 있다는것은 모두가 알고 있다. 미국의 인도의 확진자 및 사망자를보면, 미국 확진자수도 많고, 사망자수도 훨씬 많다. 그러나 인도에서 발표한 숫자가 정확하다고 믿는 사람들은 별로 없을 것이다.
오늘 현재 전세계의 확진자수는 32.6백만명, 회복된숫자는 22.5백만명, 사망자숫자는 990K이며, 인도는 확진자수가 6백만명에 사망자수는 94,000명, 미국은 7백만명에 사망자수가 204K라고 발표 됐는데....
현재 인도에서는 하루에 평균 7-9만명의 확진자가 발생하고 있다고 한다. 이전염율은 계속 확장세에 있어 고민이 더 큰것이다.
인도에서 구급차 운전수에 대한 얘기를 들어 보면 그사연이 기구하다.
구급차 운전수, 41세의 Mohsin Khan씨는 차창을 내려놓고 사이렌을 울리고 달리면서 그옆에 있는 응급보조원에게 왜 내가 응급차 운전수가 됐는가에 대한 설명에 열을 올린다. "나는 어머니가 아파서응급차를 불렀는데 제빨리 오지 않아 결국 돌아가시고 말았다. 그냥 보고만 있어야만 하는 참담함에, 다시는 그러한 참담한 상황을 막아 보고져 이직업을 택한 것이다"라고 설명한다. Covid-19이 인도에서 발생하기 시작하면서 Khan씨는 수도 델리지역을 종횡으로 달리면서 환자들을 병원으로 후송하면서 사망자에 대한 의식을 집행하는 유일한 증인이 되기도 한다. 화장을 시키는것을 목격할때는 아무런 도움이 못돼는 안타까움이 더 많은데, 특히 3세의 전염병 희생자를 옮길때는 그느낌은 더하다고 설명한다.
"어린꼬마를 보면서 내딸을 생각나게 하는데 내아이도 누군가의 아이일수 있기 때문이다"라고 설명하면서 눈물을 훔친다. 어떤때는 하루종일 화장장에서 또는 공동묘지에서 보낸다. 너무나 많은 시체들이 나를 기다린다."라고 화장장에서 당가에 실린 시체를 넘겨주기위해서 기다리면서 설명한다. 지난 4월 17일 첫번째 환자를 옮긴 이후로 확진자숫자와 사망자 숫자가 줄어들지 않고 계속적으로 증가하는있는 상황을 계속 지켜봐 왔었다. "
"내가 속해있던 구급차사무소에는, 처음 내가 배치됐을때는 내가 운전하는 단 한대뿐의 구급차가 있었을 뿐이고, 전염병으로 사망한 사람들은 계속 늘어나기만 했었는데, 지금은 17대로 구급차가 늘어났다." 라고 하면서 어떤날에는 내가 한일은 하루종일 사망자들만 처리했었던 날도 있었다.
"우리는 불행하게도 수백만명의 노동자들이 전국을 헤매기에, 전에는 청정지역이나 마찬가지였던 시골지역에 까지 이들이 전염병을 퍼뜨리는 불행한 처지에 놓여있다." Lockdown으로 경제가 심하게 충격을 받아 지난 4월에서 6월사이에는 거의 23.9%가 줄어들었고, 1억2천 1백만명이, 지난 4월부터 8월사이에, 실직자가 되고 말았다.
5월에는 수상 Narendra Modi정부가 사회적 폐쇄를 완화시키면서 전염병 환자는 계속 증가세에 있다. 정부관계자들은 더이상 경제성장의 추락을 두고만 볼수없어, 전염병의 확산에도 불구하고 사회적 폐쇄조치를 완화하기로 결정 실행중에 있다고 설명이다.
전염병 방역일선에서 수고하는분들의 감염위험이 가장 높다. 인도의료협회의 발표에 따르면 382명의 메디칼 닥터가 COVID-19과 싸우다 목숨을 잃었다고 했는데, 인도정부는 공식적으로 방역최일선에서 싸우다 순직한 전문의료인들의 사망자수수자는 아직까지 공식적으로 집계된게 없다고 설명했다. Mohsin Khan, 구급차 운전수역시 항상 전염될 위험을 안고 근무하고 있으며, 그는 그래도 나는 싸우는 전사여서 계속 이일을 할것이라고 했다.
한국의 최일선에서 COVID-19과 싸우는 전문의료인들에 대한 국가적 배려는, 문재인 정부가 첫번째로 챙겨야할 사항으로 판단된다. 문재인 정부는 정은경 본부장을 정치적으로 이용할 생각은 아예 접기를 권하며, 이북의 김정은에게 읍소하는것은 절대로 용납안된다. COVID-19을 막기위해 시체를 불태웠다는 김정은이의 사기선전에 응당의 보복조치를 취해서 국민들의 불안을 해소 시켜서, 대한민국이 절대로 김정은이의 공갈에 쉽게 넘어갈 나라가 아님을 힘으로 보여줘라.
With the windows of his ambulance rolled down and the siren blaring, Mohsin Khan, 41, told his attendant why he drives ambulances.
"I lost my mother because no ambulance came on time to attend to her," he said. "The helplessness I felt, I don't wish that on my worst enemy."
On COVID-19 duty since the beginning of the pandemic in India, Khan has seen and done it all: from rushing patients to hospitals across Delhi to being the sole witness to last rites being performed. But this particular trip to the cremation ground brought him a sense of complete helplessness, as it involved him shifting the body of a 3-year-old COVID-19 victim, the youngest he has ever carried.
"She just reminds me of my daughter, she is somebody's child," he said tearfully.
"Sometimes I end up spending my entire day in cremation grounds and cemeteries. There are just too many bodies," he said as he waited to hand over the stretcher at the crematorium.
Since April 17, when Khan picked up his first COVID-19 patient, he has seen the numbers in cases and deaths rise consistently.
"My ambulance was the only one in the fleet until then," he said. "But with an increase in the number of cases and deaths, we now have 17 ambulances."
Some days, death is the only thing he sees.
"There are so many bodies and so many patients," he said. "On some days, we don't even have time to eat. There have been times when I have had to take six patients at once."
India this month surpassed Brazil as the country with the world's second-highest number of recorded infections. According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre, the country has 5.6 million total cases, putting it not far behind the United States, which has 6.8 million.
The country is seeing between 70,000 and 90,000 new cases daily. The virus has killed more than 80,000 people and infection rates are surging across the country with no sign of stopping.
"The number of cases per day is a matter of concern. And everybody from governments, union governments, state governments, medical professionals, everybody is concerned," Dr. Arvind Kumar, a lung specialist at New Delhi's Gangaram Hospital, told ABC News. "And are we constantly having discussion, dialog, on what to do to contain this number?"
Experts also worry that the infection rate in India could be higher than what it is currently being reported.
In the past few months, the Indian government has been doing more testing -- up to 1 million tests are being carried out each day, according to authorities -- but per capita testing rates remain low.
"If you compare with other countries which have a comparable number of cases, the Indian test per million population is 47,000. Brazil is one-and-a-half times that, and Russia and the U.S. are six times that," said Dr. Rajib Dasgupta, a professor of community medicine at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University. "And that's a far more sensitive indicator than saying we've gone up so many tests. So in that sphere, there's a lot more that needs to be done."
Testing in India also includes the rapid antigen tests, which result in a higher portion of false negatives, Dasgupta told ABC News.
"Antigen tests have been there for quite some months now and were meant for special situations like containment zones and people with high probability of illness," Dasgupta said. "But it's being done more generally now. On the plus side, this has pushed up testing numbers, but on the minus side you're picking up less than you would from such a high number of tests."
In March, India instituted a stringent lockdown to curb the crisis and give India's overburdened health care system a shot at dealing with the pandemic. But the lockdown plan did not account for the millions of internal migrants working in cities. Most of them were daily wage laborers who, overnight, found themselves without work and shelter.
They were left with no choice but to undertake arduous journeys, often on foot, to go back to their villages located thousands of miles away. And that contributed to the spread of the virus.
"We did have the unfortunate incidents of millions of laborers crisscrossing the country, which unfortunately carried this virus from cities to our rural areas, which were previously untouched," Kumar said.
The lockdown hit the economy hard. India's GDP went down 23.9% between April and June, and 121 million people lost their jobs between April and August.
By May, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government had begun easing the lockdown, just as cases were going up.
Authorities decided they couldn't afford a further slowing down of the economy, and they have since continued to ease restrictions despite the surge in cases.
Workplaces and businesses have reopened, construction has restarted, markets are bustling and restaurants have opened their doors. Metro rail services in different cities have resumed as well.
The iconic Taj Mahal, India's biggest tourist attraction, also welcomed back tourists on Sept. 21, though in much smaller numbers, after closing its doors for an unprecedented six months.
But, as cases increase each day, India's health care system has been put to the test.
"Yes, it's a fact that in most of the big cities we are reaching a saturation point where most of the hospitals are choked to capacity. There is a scarcity of ventilators," said Kumar.
Precious oxygen has also been in short supply.
Dasgupta believes so far the health services have broadly managed to deal with the pandemic.
"If cases stabilize at this point we can assume that services can cope. If they continue to increase, it will become difficult," he said. "The other issue is that other services are affected, for example, routine services such as ante natal care, like immunization, post-natal care, treatment for those with chronic diseases. All of those have been affected to a varying extent, and that's often not part of the story."
It's those on the front lines of the battle who are most at risk. The Indian Medical Association claimed that at least 382 doctors have lost their lives fighting COVID-19 after the Indian government said they had no data on the deaths of health care personnel.
For Mohsin Khan, the ambulance driver, the danger of infection is ever-present. But he soldiers on.
"There was an ambulance driver in Chennai who got coronavirus and died. People have told me about this incident and asked me what I would do. I told them that I wouldn't leave this job. If God gives us courage, then we will continue," Khan said.
At 1.6%, officially India's mortality rate remains low. This means that of all the people with a positive COVID-19 test, only about 1.6% die of the disease. In comparison, the U.S. has a mortality rate of 2.9 % and in the United Kingdom, that rate is 10.4%.
But in India, the death rate is likely a massive undercount. It has been reported that people suffering from comorbidities, who die after contracting coronavirus, may not always be considered COVID-19 fatalities.
"This is quite contrary to the guidance of the World Health Organization," Dasgupta said. "While a state has full authority to review deaths, and indeed should do rigorous mortality analysis, it should be guided by the WHO's position on this matter."
In parliament, health minister Harsh Vardhan blamed "irresponsible societal behavior" for contributing to the spike in cases. He urged all Indians to follow proper hygiene, wear masks and practice social distancing.
"I think people are now getting restless and probably becoming less compliant with social distancing norms, masks and hygiene, than at the beginning of the lockdown," said Arvind Kumar. "I have been repeatedly requesting people that no matter how many months have passed, we have no choice but to continue to abide by social distancing norms."
It's not just COVID-19 fatigue. In a country like India that is densely populated, with crowded public areas, and cramped housing solutions, most people don't have the luxury of space.
In the narrow, crowded lanes of Old Delhi, the Mughal era walled city, social distancing is next to impossible.
Piyush Dixit, who runs an eatery in one of the narrow lanes, has seen his benches fill up since restaurants started opening up.
"Earlier, people were scared, they weren't coming out, they were trying to maintain distance from each other. But it's human nature, how long can you confine someone to one space?" Dixit told ABC News. "Cases are only going to rise. But people aren't going to wait inside anymore. Be it for work or for just going out, they will come out."
Dasgupta believes that people will have to learn to live with the virus for the foreseeable future.
"There's no end in sight as we speak since there are at this point a million active cases and current reproduction rate is 1, which is not bad but it means that a million cases will be transmitted to another million," said Dasgupta. "The most optimistic scenario is plateauing, but it's not going to end soon."
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