My friends still joke that I brought Covid to the city, says Delhi’s patient zero
Two years ago, though coronavirus had already spread in China and Italy too had witnessed a sizeable spike in infections around this time, no one really knew much about how the disease spread and how to manage it in Delhi, despite news channels flashing regular updates about it.
“Even after two years, there are still times when friends and family members jokingly tell me that I brought the Covid-19 infection to Delhi. March 1 is a date I will never forget,” said 47-year-old Rohit Datta, who was the first to contract the infection in the national capital two years ago.
A resident of east Delhi’s Mayur Vihar Ph-2, Datta, a businessman, had flown back from Italy on February 25, 2020 after a business trip, and was down with fever the same night. After a visit to the doctor, who suspected it to be regular flu, Datta returned to his regular business.
Three days later, Datta said that he threw a small get together at a south Delhi hotel on February 28 to celebrate his son’s 12th birthday. After the party, Datta developed fever again and on February 29 he was taken for a Covid test at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.
“I tested positive on March 1, but I was told about it the next day and that’s when it was announced by the government. Yes, there were a lot of accusations initially but since the day I recovered and got home, I have been very honest and vocal about my experience and recovery. I owed it to society,” Datta said.
Though coronavirus had already spread in China and Italy too had witnessed a sizeable spike in infections around this time, no one really knew much about how the disease spread and how to manage it in Delhi, despite news channels flashing regular updates about it.
“There was so much stigma attached to the infection at the time and I also felt a great amount of guilt. Even though I recovered from the infection in two weeks, it was like I was battling public perception more than the infection itself,” said the Delhi-based businessman.
While Datta was safe from all the subsequent variants of Covid-19, which caught the city’s healthcare infrastructure in the initial waves, his family members were infected in the recent Omicron wave. The recovery, however, was prompt.
Datta said that two years and five waves of Covid later -- now that very few people have managed to dodge the Covid infection -- people have become more accepting of his and his family’s experience.
“The healthcare infrastructure is more prepared now and the government has also done a lot to make facilities better for patients. The attitude of people has also changed. Especially after the second wave, when so many families lost their loved ones, they have become more empathetic towards other peoples’ experiences and journeys. We have all come a long way,” Datta said.