Dr. Kumar Gaurav, 42, a medical professor and consultant psychiatrist who has been named the top official at Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College and Hospital during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, despite being one of its most junior consultants, speaks to colleagues working in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for COVID-19 patients, in Bhagalpur, Bihar, India, July 27, 2020. In June, Gaurav says, the district administration instructed the hospital to treat uninfected patients, too. "In an ideal world, there should not be any non-COVID patients in this hospital."
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Medical staff treat a patient inside the emergency ward of Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College and Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Bhagalpur, Bihar, India, July 27, 2020.
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Stretchers are left by a broken disinfectant tunnel installed at Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College and Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Bhagalpur, Bihar, India, July 28, 2020.
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Patients sit on hospital beds inside the emergency ward of Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College and Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Bhagalpur, in Bihar, India, July 27, 2020.
REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui
Stray dogs rest on top of discarded personal protective equipment (PPE) at a testing and isolation ward for suspected coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients at the primary health centre in Ismailpur, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Bhagalpur, Bihar, India, July 28, 2020.
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Sameer, 22, a medical worker, wears a pair of sunglasses as part of his personal protective equipment (PPE) as he gets ready to transfer COVID-19 patient Parsada Sah, 67, from the emergency ward to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College and Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Bhagalpur, Bihar, India, July 27, 2020. Sameer gestures to his overalls and says "we only get these once we are moving positive patients from the general ward to a COVID ward." Otherwise, he says, "we are the first people to receive a patient as they enter the gate, but we don't have any protection."
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A patient's relative is served food outside a ward at Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College and Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Bhagalpur, Bihar, India, July 26, 2020.
REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui
Sameer, 22, a medical worker, carries an oxygen cylinder on his shoulder as COVID-19 patient Parsada Sah, 67, a shopkeeper, is carried on a stretcher by his son Manoj Kumar Sah, 45, and Sameer's colleague as Parsada Sah is transferred from the emergency ward to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College and Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Bhagalpur, Bihar, India, July 27, 2020. Even though Sah's family know that he is infected, the family goes inside the ward to feed Sah. "The staff just puts the food on the bed; they don't feed anyone," Manoj says. "If the patient can't eat himself, he has to get someone to help."
REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui
Sameer, 22, a medical worker, carries an oxygen cylinder on his shoulder as COVID-19 patient Parsada Sah, 67, a shopkeeper, is carried on a stretcher by his son Manoj Kumar Sah, 45, and Sameer's colleague as Parsada Sah is transferred from the emergency ward to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College and Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Bhagalpur, Bihar, India, July 27, 2020. Even though Sah's family know that he is infected, the family goes inside the ward to feed Sah. "The staff just puts the food on the bed; they don't feed anyone," Manoj says. "If the patient can't eat himself, he has to get someone to help."
REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui
People wash an ambulance on the banks of the Ganges river behind Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College and Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Bhagalpur, in the eastern state of Bihar, India, July 26, 2020.
REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui
Dr. Kumar Gaurav, 42, a medical professor and consultant psychiatrist who has been named the top official at Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College and Hospital during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, puts on his personal protective equipment (PPE) as his wife Dr. Mili Jaswal, a psychologist, looks on, at their home in Bhagalpur, Bihar, India, July 27, 2020. Now, with some doctors struck down by the coronavirus and others refusing to work, Gaurav has been named the top official at the hospital, despite being one of its most junior consultants – and suffering from diabetes and hypertension, two risk factors for severe COVID-19. But Gaurav says he felt compelled to volunteer for the job. "A lot of my colleagues refused," he says. "I had to take up the responsibility."
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An X-ray picture taken from a patient is displayed on a lightbox in the emergency ward of Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College and Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Bhagalpur, Bihar, India, July 28, 2020.
REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui
Dr. Kumar Gaurav, 42, a medical professor and consultant psychiatrist who has been named the top official at Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College and Hospital during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, despite being one of its most junior consultants, is helped by a colleague to put on personal protective equipment (PPE) before entering the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for COVID-19 patients at Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College and Hospital in Bhagalpur, Bihar, India, July 26, 2020. "If I stand in front of a COVID patient for two minutes, and I see 20 patients, I have exposure for 40 minutes," Gaurav says.
REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui
India remains the third hardest-hit country in the world in terms of confirmed infections, with over 60,000 daily cases over the past seven days.
REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui
Dr. Kumar Gaurav, 42, a medical professor and consultant psychiatrist who has been named the top official at Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College and Hospital during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, despite being one of its most junior consultants, talks to the wife of a COVID-19 patient who was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College and Hospital in Bhagalpur, Bihar, India, July 26, 2020.
REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui
A health worker checks a patient's oxygen levels with a pulse oximeter after he arrived at the emergency ward of Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College and Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Bhagalpur, in Bihar, India, July 27, 2020.
REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui
Used coronavirus testing kits are left on a table at a testing and isolation ward for suspected COVID-19 patients at the primary health centre in Ismailpur, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Bhagalpur, Bihar, India, July 28, 2020.
REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui
India on Saturday topped 2.5 million confirmed coronavirus as Modi announced that the country is prepared to mass produce vaccines.
REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui
Dr. Kumar Gaurav, 42, a medical professor and consultant psychiatrist who has been named the top official at Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College and Hospital during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, despite being one of its most junior consultants, wears personal protective equipment (PPE) as he speaks to a nurse who contracted COVID-19, on the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College and Hospital in Bhagalpur, Bihar, India, July 26, 2020. "We don't know who is positive and who is negative," says Gaurav. "We don't know their status and we cannot wait for them to be tested. They just need the treatment. We are the most vulnerable population."
REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui
India on Sunday passed 3 million confirmed COVID-19 cases.
