‘What about the people whom I met, my 2-year old daughter and others?’
Afaq Bhat
Srinagar, May 21: A man from north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, who was sent home after being declared negative for COVID-19, has put a video message on facebook, asking the administration why the lives of his family members and others whom he met have been put at stake by giving him a wrong report. The video clip has gone viral putting the helmsmen in the district in a quandary.
In a major goof-up a 40-year-old man, who was under administrative quarantine, at Saint Joseph School in Baramulla town was declared COVID-19 positive, a night after he was allowed to go home with negative discharge certificate by the administration.
A visibly upset man while recording the video message in a quarantine centre says, “We were 90 people who had arrived from different places. All of us were placed under quarantine in Baramulla for 3-days. Our samples were taken and when our reports came, we were told we are all negative. After that we were discharged.”
“I went home and spent time with my family. I have a 2-year old daughter, who remained with me after I returned home. I met many people in my area,” the man says.
“The next day I got a call from the quarantine centre and I was asked to come back for one more test. When I reached there, I was told my test has to be performed again and my report will come in 2-hours. But before I could reach the quarantine centre, the social media was abuzz with the news that a man from Khwaja Bagh area has tested positive for COVID-19,” he says.
“If I was COVID-19 positive why at the first place I was sent home? Why was I given the negative certificate? Who is responsible for the goof-up? I am worried about my family members, my 2-year old daughter and the people whom I met? Have these people been placed under quarantine or not? What kind of a system has been put in place. Will someone answer?” the man says.
While narrating the details of his journey to Baramulla, the man says, “From Jammu to Srinagar I shared a common bus with more than 30 people and there was no social distancing. I am not worried about myself only, I am concerned about the people whom I have got in touch during all these days.”
Pertinently, it is the second incident within a day when a COVID- 19 patient was allowed to go home by medical authorities in north Kashmir.
Earlier, a youth from Langate was given negative discharge certificate and he also spent day with his family, following which a number of people including his family members were put under quarantine.
