COVID-19: Central Railway worst-hit across Indian Railways

A CR employee in protective gear while at work

Central Railway has topped the number of COVID deaths, with 67 of the 336 total casualties on Indian Railways, since the beginning of the pandemic. The figure for Western Railway is 50. A senior official said the figures are not just for Mumbai but across all divisions of the railways.

While Central Railway has Mumbai, Pune, Bhusawal, Nagpur and Solapur, Western Railway has Mumbai, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Ratlam, Rajkot and Bhavnagar.

WR staffers wearing PPE suits at work

The official statistics revealed by Indian Railways in Parliament this week said that while the Central Railway had 1,323 COVID-19 affected employees, the Western Railway had about 994 of them as of September 18. A total of 14,714 employees have been affected by COVID-19 across Indian Railways.

A maximum of over 2,200 infections was reported by the South Central Railway, followed by the 1,323 on Central Railway, 1,307 in Northern Railway, 1,145 in the Southern Railway and 1,013 cases in the East Central Railway. Central Railway officials said they were working on turning the tide and reducing the numbers.

Officials speak

CR Chief Public Relations Officer Shivaji Sutar said, "Central Railway is taking every possible step to ensure the safety of its family. We have initiated the 'Rail Parivar Dekh Rekh Muhim' to take of more than 1 lakh staff, and later on, the campaign was launched in other zones too. Apart from distribution of masks, sanitisers, PPE kits to staff, we have focused on improvement in medical facilities. Our hospitals are now equipped with a team of trained medical staff and doctors."

WR officials said to aid the medical fraternity in better patient care for COVID-19, Jagjivan Ram Hospital (JRH), Mumbai Central, has developed an in-house JRH App - a web-based mobile enabled application that logs the entire patient flow for COVID treatment, right from the entry into the triage of the hospital till they are discharged. As a special initiative, JRH has engaged two clinical psychologists, to counsel staff as well as patients to overcome any emotional disturbance during this pandemic. These counsellors visit all wards, interact with the patients and work upon their thought process towards positive mindset.

Also Read: COVID-19: Mumbai deaths drop by half from July

14,714
No. of total Railway employees affected by COVID-19 so far

1,323
No. of CR staff infected

994
No. of WR staff infected

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