Berhampur: While the world is still learning to live with the repercussions of coronavirus pandemic, a woman from Ganjam district saw the ugliest side of the disease.
Apart from Anuradha Panigrahi, her husband and in-laws had contracted COVID-19 and she was only who came out of this trauma alone.
Anuradha hails from Digapahandi of Ganjam, which is the epicentre of the pandemic in Odisha. While she works at Kushapada Primary School as Sikhya Sahayak. Her husband Jitendra Patra used to run an electronics shop at Digapahandi market. Her small family consists of her retired engineer father-in-law Krushna Chandra Patra, a homemaker mother-in-law Janaki Patra and her two little kids.
When Anuradha got deployed at quarantine centre at Kushapada Primary School, she had bever thought that her worst nightmare is about to get true. She worked at the TMC from May 15 to July 4. Soon she and Jitendra started developing symptoms.
The whole family had their swab samples sent for testing on July 9. The next day they were admitted to a Sitalapalli’s Tata Covid hospital after their tests came positive. Luckily, the kids were spared by the novel coronavirus.
On July 15, Janaki was the first to succumb to the disease, followed by Krushna Chandra on July 20. Jitendra passed away on the same evening. Anuradha was able to fight the disease but came back to an empty nest.
Odisha’s COVID-19 epicentre of Ganjam district has seen the worst of crisis with the highest number of cases and also that of deaths. As per the latest information from the Health Department, while Odisha’s infection tally stands at 22,693; that from Ganjam are 7634. And while there have been 120 deaths in the State, 70 are from Ganjam.