Diary of a COVID-19 survivor: Fight with a deadly virus and stigma

On March 24, just hours after the central government announced a nationwide lockdown to be effective from the midnight, 29-year-old M. Manikandan, a reporter with ETV Bharat in New Delhi, boarded a 3 am flight to Chennai.

The news of the 21-day lockdown triggered a scramble among non-residents working in Delhi to hurry back home and Manikandan, a resident of Thanjavur district in Tamil Nadu was one of them. It was the thought of his wife and one-and-a-half-year-old child that propelled him to reach home, come what may. He had called his friends to check if he can get a bus to his village from Chennai.

“On reaching my village, I maintained social distancing as I knew I might be a potential carrier and did not want to harm my family members or villagers. I quarantined myself in a separate house, about 500 meters from my house, where my wife and child stay,” he says.

Beginning of the unexpected

But, alarm bells rang for Manikandan after the emergence of a religious congregation in Delhi as a COVID-19 cluster, following which the Tamil Nadu government asked people to self-report themselves if they had attended the congregation. Manikandan, who had people returning from the congregation in his flight, immediately alerted doctors at the local Primary Health Centre, who gave him antibiotics.

After more cases were reported from the Delhi cluster, Manikandan urged PHC workers to get him tested for COVID-19 and was eventually admitted to the Thanjavur Medical College Hospital on April 2.

While awaiting the test results, Manikandan kept his spirits high and was filing reports for his news website from the hospital bed until April 6.

“I am completely fine, boss. I do not have any symptoms. I am waiting for the test reports, but there seems to be no transparency here. Anyway, since I continue to do my routine work, I do not find anything hard until now,” Manikandan told this reporter on April 4.

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His confidence was shattered on April 6 evening, after he tested positive for COVID-19.

“Even before I was told about the result, police started screening my locality. I was informed that I have tested positive when I asked doctors about what is happening,” he said on April 6.

Soon, his family including his parents, wife, and toddler son as well as his in-laws were admitted to the hospital.

“But, even before I tested positive, the rumours had started with villagers red-flagging me and circulating my photo on WhatsApp. It was more difficult to face society than being under quarantine,” he had shared then.

Stigma, ignorance and trauma

Manikandan heaved a sigh of relief after his family tested negative for COVID-19 on April 12 and were cleared to stay in home quarantine. But his predicament didn’t end there.

“My family had called a cab driver from the village to take them home. The driver in turn informed villagers about their return. The news spread like wildfire and panic-stricken villagers made anonymous complaints to police and the district administration, asking them not to allow my family inside the village,” Manikandan said.

Citing law and order situation, based on the request of authorities, Thanjavur Medical College Hospital doctors kept Manikandan’s family in hospital quarantine for a few more days.

Bitter-sweet quarantine

Manikandan, who initially had problems with food served at the hospital, says families of 40 other COVID-19 patients in the hospital chipped in to get food for him during his stay.

He says barring higher officials, the hospital staff- from junior doctors to the sanitary workers – were kind to the patients.

“Whenever sanitary workers entered the room, they would ask me to wear the mask and then clean the room and leave, asking me to take care. Even the nurses in the ward would go for lunch only after asking us whether we were done with our lunch,” he says.

Manikandan says it was reading and writing that bailed him out of boredom during his 21-day-long quarantine.

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“I read every day and wrote my thoughts on social media and my personal diary. Reading and writing diverted my attention from the rumor-mongering and stigmatisation happening outside the hospital,” Manikandan adds.

Manikandan was discharged from the hospital on April 23 after testing negative for the disease twice.

His smile and confidence has returned with his health. But what worries him is the stigma that will surround him and his family for some time now.

“I thought the stigmatisation would go once I get cured and discharged. But, it has not. When I walked through the streets of my village to reach home, many residents sprinkled cow-dung and neem leaf water on the ground that I trod and it hurt,” Manikandan added.