TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Covid, Corona and Lockdown: the newborns named after a pandemic
When Colline Tabesa gave birth to a healthy baby girl in the central Philippine city of Bacolod on April 13, she and the father John Tupas decided to mark the occasion with a show of gratitude.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
This handout picture courtesy of the Carrillo Muro family dated March 28, 2020 shows Vanesa Muro, 34, holding her baby Oliver, born on March 13, 2020, at their home in Madrid. - For 10 days after giving birth to her first child, Vanesa Muro was not allowed near him after she tested positive for coronavirus, for fear of infecting her newborn baby.
And even though she has since been reunited with her son, neither she nor her husband have been allowed to physically touch him without gloves as they undergo an extended cautionary period of quarantine. (Courtesy of the Carrillo Muro family via AFP/-)
F
irst there was Corona Kumar, then Covid Marie: parents have taken to naming newborns after the coronavirus, apparently unperturbed by the prospect of their children being forever associated with a deadly pandemic.
When Colline Tabesa gave birth to a healthy baby girl in the central Philippine city of Bacolod on April 13, she and the father John Tupas decided to mark the occasion with a show of gratitude.
"This COVID-19 has caused great suffering around the world," said 23-year-old Tupas, expressing relief after the uneventful delivery.
"I wanted her name to remind us that COVID did not only bring us suffering. Despite all of this, a blessing came to us," he added.
And so, Covid Marie it was.
Weeks earlier, two mothers in southeastern India had had similar ideas, apparently encouraged by a doctor in the hospital where their babies were delivered.
One was called Corona Kumar and the other Corona Kumari.
"I told them this would help create awareness about the disease and remove the stigma around it," said S.F. Basha, the doctor.
"To my surprise, they agreed."
Not to be outdone, a migrant-worker couple in India's northeast stranded thousands of kilometres from their home in the desert state of Rajasthan decided to name their child Lockdown.
"We named him Lockdown remembering all the problems we had to face during this tough time," local media reports quoted the father Sanjay Bauri as saying.
Tupas, the father of baby Covid Marie, said that while he had fielded criticism on social media for his unorthodox choice, he would not be swayed.
"She might experience bullying, but I'll just teach my daughter to be a good person," he said.
"We didn't have second thoughts."
