An Indian couple has named their newborn twins ‘Corona,’ a boy and ‘Covid,’ a girl, amidst a lockdown of their country due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The couple, based in Raipur, capital of Chhattisgarh, a state in central India, said, to them, the names connote the triumph they had over the hardships they experienced in the build-up to the successful delivery which spanned March 26 to 27.
However, they may reverse their decision in the future and rename their children, the couple told local media.
The new mother Preeti Verma: “I was blessed with the twins, a boy and a girl, in the early hours of March 27. We have named them Covid (boy) and Corona (girl) for now.
“The delivery happened after facing several difficulties and therefore, my husband and (I) wanted to make the day memorable. Indeed, the virus is dangerous and life-threatening but its outbreak made people focus on sanitation, hygiene and inculcate other good habits. Thus, we thought about these names. Mrs Verma added.
“When the hospital staff also started calling the babies as Corona and Covid, we finally decided to name them after the pandemic,” she explained further.
Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, had on March 24 announced a 21-day lockdown of India’s 1.3 billion population in a bid to stem the spread of coronavirus.
Trouble, however, broke out, forcing Modi to seek the forgiveness of the millions of poor people in India, with the country, so far, having 2,032 reported cases and 58 deaths.
The couple had to breach the restriction when Mrs Verma, who also has a two-year-old daughter, began to feel labour pain in the late night of March 26.
“I suddenly experienced severe labour pain and somehow my husband arranged an ambulance operated under 102 Mahtari Express service,” the 27-year-old mother said.
