Covid and vaccinating our group.

As I write now the Covid situation in India has stabilised

and the number of new cases is on par with the UK (42,000, from a peak of 10 times this rate in April). We saw the terible pictures on the news of hospitals in India overwhelmed, and people dying outside for lack of oxygen. At this time we fretted about our community and regretted not being able to persuade them to be vaccinated much earlier when vaccines were available and no-one wanted one. Now it seemed we were too late. Tabitaya and 3 other members of the group contracted Covid before they managed to get vaccinated and he sadly passed away in May. It was a terrible time and we all miss him terribly. The other 3 members of the group recovered.

Accessing the vaccine was very difficult with promises of teh vaccine being delivered and disseminated every few days, but the demand was so great and teh supply just not even nearly enough. However a breakthrough came and David managed to negotiate access to vaccines for our group if we purchased them, on the grounds of their vulnerability.

The healthcare worker visited their compound and they received the Covishield vaccine back in July and now again in September (Oxford Astra-Zenica). We were so relieved.