Sweating in their plastic suits, cops labour on in red zones

Head constable Anil Kumar Dhaka begins perspiring within five minutes of wearing a personal protective equipment (PPE) kit. Over the next few minutes, his hair gets

Head constable Anil Kumar Dhaka begins perspiring within five minutes of wearing a personal protective equipment (PPE) kit. Over the next few minutes, his hair gets drenched in sweat, his eyebrows turn moist and his uniform is stained. Soon, the sweat begins dripping down his legs, into his shoes.

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“In those moments I feel a strong urge to have a bath. It feels like the biggest luxury of life,” says Dhaka.

Since Tuesday, Dhaka has been deployed outside a Covid-19 containment zone in South Delhi’s Deoli Extension, which is one of the 92 sealed areas in Delhi. His job requires him to don a PPE multiple times a day — four on Thursday, for instance.

With the number of cases among police personnel rising over the last week, at 28 on Thursday, is imperative that Dhaka wears the PPE kit to protect himself and his family.

Dhaka is deployed about 200 metres from a containment zone, where residents can’t step out of their homes and authorities have to ensure essentials are supplied to their doorsteps. While he isn’t required to wear the PPE while standing guard at the barricades, he needs to don it each time he enters the zone. “If a doctor or an officer needs to go into the containment zone, I have to accompany them. If a resident requires anything, I have to go in wearing the PPE,” the 43-year-old says.

Dhaka’s PPE includes a single piece zipper gown, face shield, face mask, hair cover, hand gloves and shoe cover. It takes him about five minutes to kit up.

As soon as wearing it, he fights a strong urge to take it apart immediately. “I want to rip apart the plastic. It just doesn’t allow air to pass through,” says Dhaka.

The policeman’s shift timings, between 8am and 4pm, doesn’t help either. “The second half of the shift is the hottest in the day. So, I have let the residents know that if there is anything they need from me, they must place a request early in the day,” he says.

Last week, the maximum temperature in Delhi had soared to nearly 40 degree Celsius. While Thursday was cooler in comparison, the maximum temperature in Delhi has been around 36 degree Celsius for the last few days and is expected to rise to 40 degrees by the time the lockdown ends, on May 3.

Dhaka says that responding to the calls of the residents usually take just a few minutes, but up to two hours if he is accompanying a doctor or an official who is tracing contacts. He is afraid to even drink water inside the containment zone. “It is anyway a task to have water while being decked in a PPE,” he says.

Covered from head to toe in the kit, speaking on his phone seems a Herculean task. He has asked his family members not to call him during his work hours. “In any case, my voice turns feeble when I wear the PPE. I don’t feel like talking,” he says.

Upon returning to the barricade, he immediately pulls off the PPE, unbuttons his shirt and takes in a lungful of fresh air. “Since taking a bath is not possible (during duty), I use a towel to wipe myself clean. If the wind blows at that time, it gives a feeling of a shower,” he says.

By the time he returns home on his motorcycle, his uniform has dried, but the white stains are a reminder of the important duty he has performed, albeit in uncomfortable circumstances.

For the safety of his family as well as to ensure they don’t see what he has been through, he removes his uniform on the ground floor of his house and walks to the first floor in a towel. “I immediately dip my uniform in hot water. No one at my home sees what state it is in,” says the policeman, who is attached to the Tigri police station.

The police say that they are doing all that is possible to limit the entry of their personnel into containment zones so that they don’t have to spend long periods in PPEs.

“We are not deploying our policemen inside containment zones unless it is essential. Instead, we are using drones for surveillance inside the zones,” says Sudhanshu Dhama, assistant commissioner of police (Sangam Vihar).

Dhama himself has to enter the containment zones in his jurisdiction. “I end up making several rounds in a day and each time, I have to wear a PPE. The PPEs are uncomfortable for all our officers, but it is something we can’t do away with,” says ACP Dhama.

Head constable Dhaka, meanwhile, says he is more concerned about how he would deal with the PPEs when the humidity increases. “We’ll feel itchy and may get rashes. If zones continue to be contained for a long period, I’ll continue doing my job here. I just pray that someone comes up with a better PPE soon,” he says.