A saddening casualty of India’s deadly second coronavirus wave which claimed many lives this year include children, many of whom are now orphaned and left to fend for themselves amid the pandemic.
Among such children is seven-year-old Krishna Panda from Odisha, who lost both her parents to COVID-19 within a month and is now the caretaker of her new-born brother.
Living in Nimatpur village under the Bhogarai block in Odisha, Krishna’s mother Smita (28) died barely a week after giving birth to the baby boy, Odisha Bytes reported. Her father Kamalesh (36) also succumbed to the disease soon after.
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Smita was a nurse at the Acharya Harihara Cancer Hospital in Cuttack, while Kamalesh worked in the safety department of the East Coast Railway in Bhubaneshwar, it added.
Smita was admitted to the COVID ward of SCB Medical in Cuttack on April 15, delivered the baby a week later, but then died of the disease on May 2.
After her death Kamalesh left his two children in the care of his brother Debasis and his wife at the village and returned to work in Bhubaneshwar. He, however, also tested positive for COVID-19, was admitted to the Railway Covid Hospital before being shifted to a private hospital in Bhubaneshwar, but succumbed on June 9, the New Indian Express said.
A daily wager, Debasis told NIE he is struggling to manage the family and appealed for help from the district administration. “I appeal to the district administration to extend support for upbringing of the two children and give them a safe and secure future,” he said.
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