Three days after a senior doctor serving in the Microbiology department of Government Medical College hospital in Jammu tested positive for Covid-19, his wife, father and a domestic help also tested positive late Wednesday evening.
Without wasting time, all three were rushed to the isolation ward of the GMC, Jammu from their quarantine centre late in the night. Two other patients, who tested positive, were brought to the isolation ward from Udhampur. These two had tested positive after coming in contact with the positive cases in their neighbourhood.
In Jammu, shortly before the family of the senior doctor was shifted to the isolation ward of the GMC, his wife, herself a doctor, alleged ill treatment at the hands of the government authorities.
A Video clipping of her statement also went viral on various social media platforms where she was seen questioning the concerned authorities while sharing ordeal of her family members, kept in the quarantine.
She alleged for three days they have been quarantined but no authority informed them about their test reports. "I received a call from my husband that all three of us have been tested positive", she is heard saying in her recorded statement.
"The authorities here are not even treating us like human beings. They have stationed an ambulance outside the quarantine centre and we have been told to board the ambulance". "We are asking them where we should leave mother of the senior doctor. what if she suffers an heart attack. My husband is already hospitalised and his father( a retired police officers) has also tested positive.What if something goes wrong, who will be held accountable for all this"
She alleged her husband contracted virus due to sheer negligence on the part of the hospital authorities as they had failed to provide him personnel protection equipment. "On our part we took all the precautions, even then we are tested positive and it is all because of the negligence on the part of the hospital authorities", she alleged.
Official sources in the GMC revealed the doctors were forced to compromise their own safety as they were only handed over face masks and gloves in the name of PPE's. The team of doctors, working at the collection centre, were not provided with proper safety kits, claimed colleagues of the senior doctor who tested positive.
In her statement, wife of the doctor also claimed, "My husband was not provided with personal protection equipment (PPE) while he was on duty". Family members claimed they were hurt after attempts were made to run vilification campaign by the GMC authorities claiming the doctor was not part of the coronavirus testing team.
However, the duty roaster of the GMC, Jammu clearly mentions name of the assistant professor on the duty sheet. He was on duty between March 13- March 19 along with three others in the Microbiology department for collection of samples of coronavirus patients.
The doctor was tested positive on March 30. ,According to official sources, "the staff members stationed at the GMC, Microbiology lab were also quarantined as per the standard operating procedure".
According to the daily bulletin, so far a total number of 70 cases have tested positive in Jammu and Kashmir. The total active cases at present are 65. Out of this, 50 are from Kashmir division and 15 from Jammu. Two patients have died so far and three patients have been discharged after they recovered fully.
More than three dozen villages across nine districts of Jammu and Kashmir have already been declared 'red zones by the government, thoroughly restricting movement of people from one place to another.
At present, 65 patients have been kept in hospital isolation, 622 under hospital quarantine, and 4109 under home surveillance. Out of 1084 samples, 1010 have tested negative.
The government has also identified over 2000 contact persons of all the positive cases and have decided to test each one of them to prevent spread of Covid19 in Jammu and Kashmir.
Large number of these positive cases have reportedly come in contact with religious leaders who participated in a religious congregation in Nizamuddin and later returned to Jammu and Kashmir. The government has also initiated legal action against 10 such people as they had not declared their travel history.