Coronavirus-hit family appeals to MEA for help

It has been five days since 24year-old, Shonali Thakkar, a Mira Road resident and a security officer on board the Diamond Princess cruise liner, has been quarantined, after the ship docked at Yokohoma on February 3. Her family has sent an SOS to the Indian government. At the time of writing, no government official, either from the Centre or state had approached the family.

However, an official from the state health department said they had not been informed about Shonali, which is why they have been unable to act in the matter. “Further action can be taken only when we get orders from the higher-ups,” he said.

On Friday, Dinesh Thakkar, Sonali’s father, tweeted: “Hi I am tweeting this on behalf of my daughter, my daughter Ms. Sonali Thakkar is working with #Diamond_PrincessCrusise from Dec 2019.

As all our aware that there are many on board tourists who have been declared positive with #coronavirus The ship has been kept under isolation from 03-02-2020

Day by day the count of the infected people are increasing and the number as reached to 218 people.

Over 160 Indian crew members are stuck up over there.

No proper action has been taken till now.

I request the #IndianGovernment to please take a strict action and get back our daughter and other citizen’s of our country back to India <\@>MOS_MEA <\@>DrSJaishankar” Thakkar told The Free Press Journal, the family was awaiting government action to bring her and the other Indian passengers back.