From March 2020 till COVID hit my family, I was not worried about it neither was I under the impression that it can hit my home and destroy my family as we knew it. If you are reading this, you are most likely under the same impression that it won\u2019t hit your family and you need not worry about it and it was this callousness (despite taking certain precautions) that cost us a life.

Around the first week of July, people in my house started falling sick one after the other, within a gap of 2-3 days and the symptoms were that of a viral fever and we assumed it was just that because the monsoon season had just started and viral fever and flu are common in this time. We didn\u2019t bother following any isolation protocol neither did we bother getting the family members tested and we were taking the basic medication that anyone would for a seasonal fever.

A couple of days later, my family doctor (who has been treating COVID victims since March) told us to not take any chances and get ourselves tested. We were able to arrange for home-testing (which I later realised that it isn\u2019t accessible to many) and it turned out that I was the only member in the family who was negative. Till that moment, I was sitting next to my father, my uncles and aunts on the dining table and eating and having usual conversations but in that moment, it hit me that I have to take extra care because I was the only negative-tested person in the family and if there was any emergency, I was the one who was supposed to handle it.

Luckily for us, our house was thoroughly equipped with nebulisers, steroids, pulseoximeters, etc because my father and my uncle had existing lung issues and they needed those.

I live right next-door to my family\u2019s house and from the moment they tested positive, I equipped myself with PPE kits, sanitising sprays, etc to ensure if I had to render my family any assistance, I was protected from the infection and just as I expected, my father and his younger brother started getting sicker as their existing lung issues were triggered by COVID. Others in the family were very weak and sick but these two were affected the most.

During that time, we faced a little bit of stigma from the neighbours but we were able to handle it and it was also during that time that I realised that one has to be very practical about this disease and you should not let emotions come in the way of doing what has to be done. I stopped visiting my family unless it was absolutely necessary, as in if I had to give an injection to a family member as instructed by our doctor. Here, me knowing how to give injections helped a lot as I was able to give my dad and uncle SOS injections and in that time, I was wearing a full PPE to go into the house for just a couple of minutes and I used to disinfect myself thoroughly after discarding the PPE.

Then came a situation when my uncle\u2019s oxygen saturation level was dropping dangerously and we had to scramble around to get an oxygen cylinder and we managed to do so.

A couple of days later, his situation worsened so badly that he had to be shifted to the hospital immediately and we had a great difficulty in getting a bed in a hospital but we did manage to get him admitted. On July 15, 2020. Three days later, I noticed my father\u2019s condition worsening and I ensured he was admitted in the hospital a day before he actually needed it and that, as sad as it sounds, made all the difference, as my uncle passed away due to lung failure on July 22, 2020. My father was discharged from the hospital that very day itself, though he was physically weak.

All throughout this time, I was ensuring that I was taking proper care of myself by using every possible piece of protective equipment as I was practically swimming in a house full of Covid and I was walking around an entire hospital with many Covid patients, when my dad was admitted. Also, I was ensuring I was consuming vitamin c with every meal, in the form of orange\/mosambi juices, green tea with lemon and more. One of my cousins was ensuring all of people in my house had proper nutrition as she was cooking and bringing 3 meals a day for all of us.

Through all this, I understood that it takes a lot to combat Covid because there might come a situation where you can\u2019t cook food for yourself because you\u2019re too weak and you can\u2019t go out because you have to be quarantined. Please read the previous sentence again and again for it to sink in as to the kind of care you have to take to not get infected.

While everyone in the house recovered through home-treatment, the two family members who had existing lung issues had to be hospitalised and one of them succumbed to it. If you are reading this, realise that it is your responsibility to protect your family members from Covid and if anyone in your family has any existing lung problems like Asthma, Bronchitis, etc, ensure they are protected.

I will continue in Part 2 as to what has to be done if your family tests positive for Covid and how I have been dealing with many other cases. "}]