Wearing A PPE Kit And Holding A 9-Month-Old Baby In Hand, I Took A Flight From Delhi To Kochi

I have been living and working in Delhi for around 10 years now. My visits to my parents and my hometown in Kerala are at best once a year and I would stay there for around a week or ten days before I head back to Delhi. But since it is 2020, things are a bit different.

Right now I am in Kerala, and I have no idea when I will be going back to Delhi. That is because I quite literally ran away from there due to the whole COVID-19 situation.

Like the majority of the working population, I too have been working from home since mid-March and have mostly been confined to my room. Days before the lockdown was announced, I was being bombarded with frantic phone calls from my parents and in-laws asking us to return to Kerala at the earliest.

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Delhi or Kerala

But this was a time when Kerala had the highest number of COVID-19 cases and Delhi had hardly any. So, I decided to stay put in Delhi, despite the pressures and knowing very well that if something goes wrong, I have a better chance of getting treatment in Kerala.

And then came the lockdown and everything came to a standstill - no flights, no trains and so no travel. Then the tide started turning and Delhi's COIVD-19 cases began exploding, while it was relatively low in Kerala. And I had no good defence left to stay back in Delhi, so finally, I agreed to go back.

Then came the first challenge - WFH. My parents live in a place where the mobile network is erratic at best. And since I have to quarantine for 14 days on arrival, the house where my grandmother who is in her late 90s was ruled out of the equation. For the next few days, I put everyone whom I know in my hometown on a house hunt and it paid off. On day 2, we got a 3BHK near my hometown and I also got a new broadband connection ready.

Only after the groundworks were laid, I booked the tickets for the three of us, me, wife, and our 9-month old son. Once we had the tickets the next step was to register online on the Kerala government's portal for an entry pass, which I did.

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Within a few hours, I got a call from an unknown number and the person on the other side introduced himself as staff from the local panchayat and it was a verification call. The next day I got another call, this time from the local health center, they too wanted to verify my details and also gave a brief about the quarantine protocol that I have to follow once I am in Kerala.

Try finding a PPE kit for babies

In the meantime, we were involved in another major challenge - PPE kits. While I and my wife could find easily find PPE suits for our sizes, we could not find one for our son. As a last-ditch effort, we bought a regular-sized one altered it to fit his size.

So on Friday, finally we took an airport taxi and reached IGI Airport, three hours before our flight departure. As I observed that a lot of people were wearing PPEs outside the airport, we too did the same and got in the queue to enter the airport. I tried to maintain social distancing as much as possible, but you know how things work in India, and there was hardly any enforcement of them by the airport staff.

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At the entrance, they checked our temperature and let us in. Since we had already done the mandatory web check-in we dropped off our check-in baggage and proceeded to the security check, which took a lot longer than usual, but I guess that is the new normal.

Why Aarogya Setu?

All these while I was wondering who and where should I show my status on the Aarogya Setu app. Because when the lockdown restrictions were lifted, it was said that Aarogya Setu was the entry pass to every place and since I booked the ticket I go several SMSs from the airline and the booking portal saying that Aarogya Setu was mandatory and I had to take a self-assessment on it, which I did. But, it seems like nobody at the airport or flight is going to check if you have the app installed or did you come from a containment zone.

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As I was waiting for the boarding to start, the flight staff began distributing maks, face shields, and hand sanitizers to every passenger. Since I was in the middle seat, I was given a wrap-around gown also. It came as a welcome relief as I had already begun sweating inside my PPE suit. Though I know that it was going to be uncomfortable wearing it, in the one hour or so that I was inside it, my respect for the healthcare workers who were PPEs through the day went up manifold.

Since my son was also getting visibility agitated inside his baby PPE suit, we removed it and made him wear a mask and face shield. After one more temperature check by the airline staff and we boarded the flight in batches.

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Inside the flight, everyone was wearing face shields and masks throughout the flight. Unlike in the past, the cabin crew was hardly seen walking around, and when they were, they were covered in wrap-around gowns. The flight was eventless and I slept for the better part of the 3-hours.

Once we reached Kochi, we had to discard all the PPEs and face shields and proceeded to the registration counter. There we furnished our entry pass and contact details and even there nobody asked for my status on Aarogya Setu.

Home, finally

From the airport we took a cab home, paying almost the equivalent of the flight ticket and on our way we got our first call - from an ASHA worker, who once again briefed about the quarantine norms and how we should seek help if we develop any symptoms of COVID-19. We got one more call, this time from the PHC, almost on the same lines, and also told us that since we are coming from a hotspot, irrespective of the symptoms, we will be tested for COVID-19 after nine days.

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Since then every day we have been getting calls from the PHC, to check on us, and to remind us that we have to stay indoors. Two days into our quarantine life, I got a call from the mental health help desk, to inquire if I needed any help to deal with being restricted to my room. We also had a (sort of) surprise visitor - a cop from the local police station, again to check on us. He asked me to save his number and assured me that I can call him for any help, including if we ran out of groceries.