She was absolutely fine a minute before she collapsed in front of my eyes,” an agitated father said to me, as he watched the ICU personnel hooking up his 26-year-old daughter to every possible tube and line that a comatose patient is wired to, in order to keep her alive. An appalled mother could not fathom the thought that her daughter, who had been pottering around the house just a few hours ago, was now on a ventilator, fighting for her life.

“She had a fever for about four days,” the father went on to narrate amidst all the chatter and clatter of a busy ICU past midnight. “She complained of a constant headache,” he continued, “But today there was no headache,” he rationalised in disbelief of how such mild symptoms could result in such a catastrophe. After about two days of the fever, they got a Covid-19 test done, which was negative, and their family physician correctly prescribed a host of other tests the next day, the results of which were still awaited.