31 kin of 1st Covid victim are isolated
The daughter and son-inlaw of India’s first coronavirus fatality, Qazi Muhammad Hussain Siddiqui, have been kept under surveillance as “high risk” in a special ward of the staterun ESIC Hospital in Kalaburgi, Karnataka.
They are among 21 persons kept in isolation. Of a total 46 persons Siddiqui came into contact with, 31 are family members whose blood samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) for the coronavirus test.
Coming under scrutiny was Siddiqui’s travel history. According to his son, Dr Faisal Hamid Siddiqui, the deceased arrived from Saudi Arabia on February 29 after performing Umrah. After a few days, however, he felt uneasiness. His family took him to the family physician, but by midnight March 8, his cough worsened and he was taken to hospital.
Dr Faisal claimed that two private hospitals in Kalaburgi refused to admit him. A third did, but after doing a CT scan he was advised to shift to a hospital in Hyderabad.
The family says the patient was forcibly discharged; the hospital says they forcibly took him away.
Dr Faisal also claimed that doctors at both Gandhi hospital and Apollo Hospital were reluctant to admit him once they saw he had the coronavirus, so he was admitted to Care hospital (the family admits it did not tell doctors there that he might have the coronavirus). Once Care hospital realised he had the coronavirus, it discharged the patient, according to the family.