COVID-19: Virus-hit India's overwhelmed health workers brace for monsoon

With hospitals already severely stretched, coronavirus-hit India is now bracing for the monsoon and its deadly annual onslaught of mosquito-borne illnesses, with an overwhelmed army of public health workers the only defence.

Every year illnesses such as dengue fever and malaria infect more than half a million people and kill hundreds in India as the monsoon brings much-needed rain but also devastation and disease. | A civic authority worker (L) fumigates a slum area to kill disease-carrying mosquitoes in Mumbai.

A months-long lockdown to prevent the epidemic from spreading left Mumbai with an acute shortage of sanitation workers. | A civic authority worker fumigates a slum area.

Thousands of public health workers who fumigate neighbourhoods to kill disease-carrying mosquitoes had to delay those crucial efforts for two months to focus on sanitation instead. | Children are covered in smoke as a civic authority worker (R) fumigates a slum area.

"Many of our men are doing double shifts, working 14 hours straight," said Rajan Naringrekar, the head of the city's insecticide department. | A civic authority worker fumigates a slum area.

With nearly 60,000 infections, Mumbai accounts for around a fifth of India's coronavirus cases.

As teams fumigated a slum and cleared out stagnant water - a potent breeding ground for mosquitoes - from sagging tarpaulin roofs, storage bins and bottles, Naringrekar told AFP many of them were afraid of contracting the virus.

The risks will increase exponentially with the rains, with workers required to inspect homes and offices in case of a dengue outbreak.

People react to the smoke as civic authority workers fumigate a slum area to kill disease-carrying mosquitoes in Mumbai ahead of the monsoon season.

A civic authority worker (L) fumigates a slum area to kill disease-carrying mosquitoes in Mumbai.

A BMC worker carries out fumigation work as part of the preventive measures against malaria ahead of Monsoon season, at Mazgaon in Mumbai.