With no place to isolate himself, an 18-year-old student from Telangana’s Nalgonda, who tested COVID-19 positive on May 4, has been isolating himself on a tree for 11 days to avoid spreading COVID-19 to his family. 

With many families sharing a single room that includes the kitchen and sometimes even the toilet, Covid positive patients often find they have nowhere to go to isolate.

This is why 18-year-old Shiva decided to build himself a Covid ‘ward’ — a bed made of bamboo sticks fastened to the branches of a tree in the compound of his home, keeping in mind the well-being of his family members. With a family of four people, Shiva said that he cannot let anyone get affected because of him, and that’s why he decided to isolate on a tree which is located within the compound of his home.

While in isolation, Shiva mostly spends his time on his mobile phone, which he keeps in a tiny basket tied to the tree. His family members send his daily meals to him through a pulley system that Shiva has fashioned using rope and a bucket. Notably, he was pursuing a graduate course in Hyderabad but had returned to his village about a month ago when cases in the city were rising.

Not just Shiva, many others in the village have been forced to isolate themselves in the same manner. While some are isolating in bathrooms or staying in the fields, others have build makeshift huts using gunny sacks. The total count of coronavirus cases in Telangana crossed 5.28 lakh on Sunday as the state added 3,816 anew while the toll stood at 2955 with 27 more casualties.