COVID-19 Crisis In India, Bajaj Turns Into Emergency Ambulance

Illustration of Indian bajaj. (Wikimedia Commons/Biswarup Ganguly)

JAKARTA - The COVID-19 tsunami wave in India continues to claim casualties. As of last Thursday, India recorded a total of 21,485,285 cases of infection with 234,071 deaths due to COVID-19.

Apart from the lack of oxygen, vaccines, and treatment rooms, the handling of COVID-19 in India is also constrained by the limited ambulance. For example, like in New Delhi.

To solve this problem, local authorities are converting some bajaj, the familiar three-wheeled public transport, as an emergency ambulance to transport COVID-19 patients.

The drastic spike in COVID-19 cases has overwhelmed the government's health care system, including ambulances, in handling patients. Meanwhile, for private ambulance operators, the patient's family must make their own agreement at exorbitant rates.

To that end, the New Delhi Government, in collaboration with a non-profit organization, has equipped more than a dozen Bajaj with hand sanitizers and face masks, while oxygen cylinders are provided on a need-to-use basis. The service, which began officially on Tuesday, is free.

One of Raj Kumar's Bajaj drivers has taken the patient to Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital, the largest facility in New Delhi, India, which is filled with COVID-19 patients.

"We all have to help each other right now to get out of this situation," said Kumar, who was wearing a PPE suit. There is a plastic partition between him and the passenger at the back.

"If everyone stays at home because they are afraid, then who will help those in need?" he added.

Meanwhile, Mohit Raj, founder and executive director of the Turn Your Concern Into Action foundation said the responses so far suggest the scheme needs more vehicles.

"Now we are receiving calls not only from COVID patients but from front line workers who cannot find the patient's conveyance, as well as from people with other illnesses," he said.

Raj added he had received requests from other parts of the country to start services there.