Working Around the Clock to Combat COVID-19 in India
Countless USAID staffers are making a difference to save lives in South Asia. Hear from two of them with ties to India.
Natasha Bilimoria and Änjali Kaur both distinctly recall the Friday night virtual call in late April as their New Delhi-based colleagues described India’s devastating COVID-19 surge.
“I remember listening to them and hearing the emotion in their voices about what they were seeing every day,” says Natasha, a deputy assistant administrator in USAID’s Bureau for Global Health. “After hearing all of that, it just really reinforced why we needed to do everything we possibly could to make sure that this Mission and the work that we’re doing is done in the right way to where we get people the support that they needed.”
The stories from their colleagues only reinforced what they already knew all too well.
“In my role I work very closely with the Mission and therefore felt a very strong sense of responsibility for the safety of our staff and their families’ wellbeing, and the country as a whole. I am deeply connected to India, and felt heartbroken seeing this humanitarian crisis unfold,” says Änjali, a deputy assistant administrator for USAID’s Bureau for Asia.
India was at that moment the epicenter of the COVID-19 crisis with at least 4,000 people dying each day — mirroring the highest daily deaths in the United States when it was the world’s pandemic hotspot in 2020.
USAID has contributed billions of dollars to fight COVID-19 in more than 120 countries around the world. Over the last year and a half, the Agency has provided life-saving assistance and supplies to millions, including in South Asia. And we continue to work proactively to strengthen the ability of countries to respond to the economic and social effects of COVID-19 and to prepare for new waves of infections. The United States is also sharing at least 80 million COVID-19 vaccine doses and is the world’s largest donor to COVAX, an initiative accelerating equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines.
USAID’s response in India has been significant, and today case numbers are moving in the right direction. The U.S. Government and private sector have played leading roles in helping the country get the supplies, support, and expertise it needs to overcome this wave. And much of that work has been directed by dozens of staffers at USAID.
Natasha and Änjali are two of them. Though only months into their roles at USAID — but not new to health and development work — they jumped into the response alongside their colleagues on opposite sides of the world.
They talked recently about their personal and professional perspectives on this unprecedented crisis and the lessons learned in India that are helping the Agency respond to COVID-19 waves in other countries.
Personal and professional worlds collide.
Änjali: When we heard the news about India’s climbing COVID-19 cases, it was scary because we knew what it would mean in the coming weeks. This fear kept mounting and mounting, and then you saw it explode. When it went from 50,000 cases in a couple of weeks to more than 400,000 cases, we recognized that we had to do even more — and immediately. It’s definitely personal and professional, just because my ties to India are so strong.
You know members of your own community are being directly impacted — friends, family, everyone — so responding urgently becomes so deeply embedded in your day-to-day that it leaves the 9-to-5 and becomes around-the-clock.
Natasha: When this really started to hit, it’s almost like those two worlds collided. I was born and raised in the U.S., but [my parents] moved back to India several years ago. So I was obviously very involved in it from a personal perspective. In many ways, it is very much a part of me. And this was really the first time in my career that my personal and professional lives really came together.
Commitment goes 24–7.
Änjali: We were all trying to move as fast as we could — asking what can I do, what do I know how to do, and how can I make this happen. We, in the Asia Bureau, were speaking to our Mission colleagues in India multiple times a day, following the progress, seeing it happen, and trying to figure out how we could get ahead of the coming surge.
A lot of us coming in with valuable relationships in the region also leveraged our personal networks. I know that I called everybody that I knew in India, having lived and worked there for so many years, and I directly asked, “What are you experiencing and seeing on the ground?” “How can our response be the most effective?” We did this at all hours of the night, so we were all working around the clock. I would message Natasha at midnight or 1 o’clock and get a message back five to 10 seconds later.
Natasha: I said this a lot: If you’re going to be working this hard on something, this is the thing to be working on. But Änjali is right. We’d be talking to each other at all hours working to focus on their critical needs and how best to obtain them in the shortest amount of time.
Änjali: We were all on this, mobilizing as an agency. Having that collective support motivated each of us to do everything it takes to respond to a humanitarian crisis like this to the best of our abilities. That showed me how much of a powerful impact USAID could have and why we are playing a leading role in the COVID-19 response.
Lessons learned — and already in use.
Natasha: I think over time, what India really put in my mind is it’s not going to stop with India. What did we learn in those early moments and days when we were responding? What can we do better? And, most importantly, how can we get ahead and prevent other deadly surges from emerging, like we’ve seen in India?
Änjali: COVID has shown us the depth of inequities and the comprehensive approach we must take to truly deliver quality health care for everyone. It has laid bare the cracks and the holes across health systems around the world. But it also creates entry points for us to figure out where those gaps are and how we can better address the breakdowns at a systems-level through our broader mission and programs.
Natasha: Other countries in South Asia soon followed and we took the lessons from India and have been working to get needed supplies like oxygen, PPE and rapid test kits to bend that curve moving forward.
This virus has literally found the cracks in every single country’s health system, even places with some of the strongest health systems in the world.
Änjali: Across Asia specifically, it’s the lessons learned from India — mobilizing quickly and effectively in such a huge country — and taking that context to other countries. Such as how essential it is, during a surge in cases, to immediately shore up additional oxygen supplies and access to critical care, along with ensuring broader access to personal protective equipment and rapid diagnostic tests. And we used some of these lessons to respond in Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Maldives even faster and more effectively, and we will continue to do so across Asia.
Natasha: What we really have to ensure is that with every step that we take that we are also ensuring that the systems around the world are being strengthened and pressure-tested to ensure that they can sustain these shocks — hopefully not as big in the future — but that they can withstand the shocks and protect millions of lives.
The conversation has been edited for length.
About the Authors
Änjali Kaur is a Deputy Assistant Administrator in USAID’s Bureau for Asia. Natasha Bilimoria is a Deputy Assistant Administrator in USAID’s Bureau for Global Health.
