Golaghat (Assam):
Assuring the isolated coronavirus patients and those quarantined that they were not being targeted, Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday said the aim was to prevent the spread of the deadly virus and urged them to cooperate with healthcare providers.
He requested those quarantined to refrain from spitting on health workers and around isolation wards in protest as it might further spread the virus which has infected 20 people in the state — all of whom had attended a Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi last month.
As the congregation emerged as an epicentre for spread of the coronavirus in different parts of the country, the state authorities tested and quarantined the people who had been part of the gathering and a large number of those who came in contact with them, giving rise to speculation that the community was being targeted.
Talking to reporters during his visit to Golaghat Civil Hospital to enquire about the eight coronavirus positive patients here, the minister said there was a misconception that a particular community was being targeted and forcefully quarantined in the backdrop of the virus outbreak.
“This virus can infect any community and due to an unfortunate situation, it infected people of a certain community. A community must not think that they are being targeted. No one has such intentions. Tomorrow I, too, may get infected…anybody can be.
“England’s crown prince, prime minister have been infected. Anybody who tests positive should not think they are being targeted. Doctors have been told to explain to these patients about the infection to dispel their misconceptions,” the minister said.
Sarma also urged the COVID-19 patients and those quarantined for the virus not to spit on the healthcare providers as their sputum could further spread the virus among other people.
“They are spitting below from their rooms in the hospital and creating havoc thinking we have forcefully brought them when they have no fever. Their families should explain to them through mobile phones that if their spit falls on elderly people, pregnant women and others…they will get infected. I urge them to cooperate and go through the stipulated 14 days isolation,” he said.
“Positive patients…have been informing others that they are being unnecessarily kept in hospitals. That is not correct. They should read books…that many may not show symptoms but be carriers and spread the disease on social contact,” he said.
The health minister said, “In a way they (coronavirus positive cases) are human bombs. If they go out they will make their parents, their Jamaat, their community positive. That’s why politics should not be brought into all issues. Cooperate for 14 days and thereafter they will be fit to return home.”
Some viral video clips have shown people taken for quarantine for the virus spitting on police personnel and health workers in different places in the state.
Media reports claimed those taken for isolation for COVID-19 spitting on the health care providers at Sarusajai stadium quarantine centre in Guwahati.
Sarma also informed that some people have put out audio and video clippings that the COVID-19 patients and those quarantined for it were not given proper diet and doctors not attending to them “but we are video recording the entire treatment procedure. Whatever type of diet they need is being provided”.
“Connecting politics with this issue, making allegations about not being given proper food are not necessary as I have visited all the hospitals and fixed their nutritious diet and personally monitoring it. Nothing is lacking,” Sarma asserted.
Sarma, along with ministers Pijush Hazarika and Atul Bora, also interacted with officials of the district administration and doctors.
