Back from work but shunned by families over COVID-19 scare  

Families and friends are now shunning those who are returning home after the lockdown.

The fear of the contagious COVID-19 is so great that there are reports that people are not allowing their own kin into their homes.

According to reports, in Shahjahanpur, Indra Kumar (62) was not allowed to enter his home when he returned home from Noida after the lockdown.

He had to approach the police and obtain a medical certificate from the medical officials before his family let him in.

The emergency medical officer Mohammed Meeraz at Shahjahanpur medical college said, "Several patients are being sent to the hospital just because they have been coughing or have returned from other districts. Since we cannot give any medical certificate, we are simply writing on their patient slip that their condition is normal."

In Bahraich, two families informed the hospital when their sons returned from Mumbai on Wednesday and asked the doctors to keep them in isolation till, they were certified 'Corona free'.

"We have nine members in the family including four children and we cannot take any risks. We are feeling miserable doing this but we have no choice," said the father of one of the quarantined.

The medical officials, incidentally, did not take the two into isolation but asked them to quarantine themselves on their own.

The two are now staying in an outhouse of a shut down factory on the outskirts of the district. Their families are even wary of talking to them on phone because they believe that this could transmit infection.

In Lakhimpur district, Sunandu Sudhakaran, SDM of Dhaurahra tehsil admitted that, "We are receiving several calls from villages. People are asking us to conduct health check-up of people who have returned from cities."

In another shocking development, a number of landlords have reportedly asked their tenants who are doctors and para-medics working as Corona warriors, to vacate their houses.

"My landlord called me up and said he needed the house and asked me to vacate at the earliest. When I tried to make him see reason, he clearly said that he did not want Corona carriers in his house," said a junior doctor working at the KGMU.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has now ordered strict action against all those who try to get their houses vacated.

During a video-conferencing session with officials, the Chief Minister said that no rented accommodation, hostel or paying guest facility should be vacated during the lockdown period. He has asked district magistrate to take action against the owners if they come across such cases.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his interaction with members of his constituency Varanasi, on Wednesday, has also urged people to treat 'those in white coats as Gods'.
-IANS