"During the Covid-19 pandemic, many people had to stay isolated and away from their families, but it is nothing new for us. It is part of our daily lives,” says Ramdas Pai, a 63-year-old inmate at Acworth Municipal Hospital for Leprosy, who has been staying at the Wadala-based hospital for 11 years now.

Since the pandemic began, just like Pai, all other 60 inmates (patients who have recovered from leprosy) at the hospital tested negative for Covid-19 even as Mumbai was witnessing a rise in Covid-19 cases. This was primarily because rarely anyone would come to visit them at the hospital.