My Experience at Manipal Institute of Technology’s COVID Ward

Video Editor: Sandeep Suman
Video Producer: Aastha Gulati

Since 18 March – the day my campus was declared a containment zone – a lot has been said about the Manipal Institute of Technology in Karnataka. I am a first year automobile engineering student at Manipal and I tested positive on 29 March. I hope that my experience gives people an insight into how my college is handling the outbreak of cases on campus.

It all started at the end of February, when the first few cases were reported on campus. Our exams were to be held offline as scheduled from 9 March, but by 17 March the number of cases exploded. Many students rushed home but others were not allowed to go back as the state health department had declared the campus a hotspot. Eventually, all students were tested and classes were shifted online.

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I was tested on 26 March and I got a call on the morning of the 29th that I had tested positive. I was given half a day to pack up my things and move to the COVID block. There, I was asked if I had any symptoms, which I did not. I only had weakness for the first two to three days and a sore throat. The officials explained how food will be served, the timings, and where we are supposed to collect it from. Food is served in disposables and kept at pick up counters three times a day. There is also evening tea and snacks. Once we are done, we can keep the empty container outside our rooms and the staff disposes it.

Every room in the COVID ward has a single bed, a table, chair, and a cupboard. We don’t have our own washrooms and neither do we have any ACs. The toilets and bathrooms, while shared, are sanitised regularly.

I have finished over a week in quarantine as on 6 April in Block 10 of the campus. Blocks 11 and 12 are COVID blocks for female students.

It is also a requirement for every COVID-positive patient to check their vitals. There is an oxymeter, a thermometer gun, and a blood pressure machine with which we are to record these parameters and write them down on a paper, so that the doctors get information about our health. Doctors also call every day to check if we have any symptoms.

Overall, I would say that the staff is maintaining my block really well, cleaning and sanitising it very often. Without them, I don’t think the situation could be managed as well as it is right now.

There are hundreds of people infected on the campus and the administration is trying to handle the situation the best it can. The one thing I think the administration could have done better was to provide us with a better WiFi network, because people are going crazy sitting in the same room for over 17 days in quarantine.

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