amravati district was where delta cases first emerged in the country triggering the devastating second wave strengthening of the healthcare system exemplary dedication of the medical and paramedical staff and selfless service by the administration in the hour of crisis brought the challenging situation under controlbhaurao ji bhadaji punase aged 94 and indubai his wife aged 89 were admitted to the district covid hospital in amravati both of them swirled between life and death but to everyones surprise aaji and aajoba were discharged healthy from the hospital after 20 days another case of young nikita aged 22 who got infected with covid in her late pregnancy is noteworthy she delivered a healthy baby girl through csection despite the anxieties and uncertainties about the treatment there are many such positive stories of optimism and commitment of the public sector personnel that showed the resilience and spirit of the employees who were a part of daily fight against the pandemic but these stories remained untold i being the head of the district disaster management team have been closely observing and managing the situation on the ground for the last one year and have a positive side to offerpublic health sector resilienceon march 22 2020 the nationwide lockdown was imposed to contain the spread of covid our health and administrative staff were not at all prepared or oriented to tackle the virological disaster of this magnitude there were many unanswered questions in the minds of medical staff what is the behaviour of the virus how to control it how to treat itthe first case in the district was reported in april 2020 though the medical staff were all in panic and fear due to the risk associated it was only the government hospital that took the lead to care for the affected patients despite there being an order by the government initially no private hospital showed any interest in the treatment of covid patients even today considering the cost involved in the treatment a majority of the population still depends upon the government health facility for its treatment perception of the ivory tower administrationfor most people the perception is that the civil servant is not reachable once the lockdown was announced in march to facilitate and ease the hardship of the people who were stuck at different places the government shared district magistrates contact details personal official and landline i personally attended 400 calls every day from people across the district attending to their problems my daughter once drew a family picture where i was shown holding a phone on my one ear and doing work from the other the scenes of people moving to their hometown on foot and private buses caught the eye of many but believe it or not it was only a fraction of the population it was due to the herculean and planned efforts of the grassroot administrative staff that enabled more than 24000 people to reach their home safely and timely this untiring and coordinated