A couple in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh have named their newborn twins Corona and Covid.
The twins — a boy and a girl — were born March 27 during the ongoing 21-day long nationwide lockdown that began on March 24.
“The delivery happened after facing several difficulties and therefore, my husband and I wanted to make the day memorable,” Preeti Verma, the 27-old mother of the twins, told news agency Press Trust of India.
The couple said the names would remind them about the hardships they faced during the lockdown and ahead of the successful delivery in a government hospital.
Verma described the experience as “a lot of suffering” with their family not being able to make it to the capital city of Raipur for the delivery.
The lockdown in India has resulted in the suspension of trains and airline services and effectively kept 1.3 billion Indians at home for all but essential trips to places like markets or pharmacies.
“Since the deliveries happened after such difficulties, we wanted the names to be memorable and unique,” Verma told DPA (Deutsche Presse-Agentur). She hinted that the hospital staff had suggested the names.
“Besides, these names are beautiful in their own, with Corona being Latin for crown,” added Vinay Verma, the father. “Also, we want the fear associated with these names to end and the public to focus on sanitation and hygiene.”
India has 3,068 confirmed cases of the coronavirus across the country, including 68 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Research Center. Yet “health experts say India could be weeks away from a huge surge that could overwhelm its already strained public health system,” Al Jazeera reported.
