. Care ranges from crowded wards at public hospitals that some worry will make them sicker than if they stayed home to spacious suites at private hospitals that only the wealthy can afford.
Though India has managed to halve its poverty rate over the past 15 years, some 176 million people still live on less than $1.90 a day, and experts say the pandemic is shining a spotlight on the country’s vast inequalities in everything from employment rights to health care. A personal trainer who fears he has the coronavirus, Manoj Kumar was lined up outside another public hospital just waiting to get in. He said he saw some people give the guards money in order to skip the line.
Other private health providers are selling home care packages for people with mild or moderate symptoms that for about $25 a day include twice-daily remote monitoring by a nurse, medicine deliveries and a guaranteed ambulance should the need arise. “Some of our best COVID care facilities are in the public sector,” he said, adding that it was “not possible to meet this challenge” without both public and private hospitals.Story continues below advertisement
Instead he’s spent 10,000 rupees – two-thirds of his monthly income as an office manager – to have exams and tests done at private hospitals and labs. It’s still not clear what’s causing his daughter’s sickness.