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Covid-19 stigma: Doraha dairy owner feels his release from hospital may end bias against his family
Liaquat Ali, 26, who lives with other family members at the outskirts of Rajgarh village in Doraha town, said since the time he tested positive for Covid-19, the sarpanch of the village barred his family from selling milk in the village
26-year-old Liaquat Ali, who was discharged from the civil hospital here on Tuesday evening after recovering from the novel coronavirus, feels that his release from the hospital may bring an end to the discrimination his family has been suffering for over a fortnight now.
Liaquat, a dairy owner, who lives with other family members at the outskirts of Rajgarh village in Doraha town, said since the time he tested positive for Covid-19, the sarpanch of the village barred his family from selling milk in the village. “My family was left with no option and had to travel to Ludhiana for selling milk,” he said.
Narrating the series of events before he was tested positive, Liaquat said, after the aviation ministry shared his travel details with the local authorities, on April 2, he was picked by officials of the health and police department for the test.
He added on April 4 morning, health authorities had sent him home stating that his test report was negative. Later, during the evening, the team arrived again and took him back to the civil hospital, stating that the revised analysis had showed him Covid-19 positive, he said.
“Then began the ordeal of my family. My wife, children and parents were also taken to the civil hospital, but they all tested negative. Since then, the other family members, including my brother and their children, have been arranging vegetables and other grocery items from nearby villages for my family. With the fear of catching the virus, no one in our village wanted to come near my family members,” said Liaquat.
‘I AM NOT A JAMAATI’
Liaquat said like other Covid-19 positive patients, he was also not aware as to when he came in contact with the virus.
“But the health department kept suspecting that I had attended the markaz at Nizamuddin in Delhi, from where I came in contact with the virus,” he said, adding that he had left home on March 16 and reached Vijaywara in Andhra Pradesh on March 18. Due to the lockdown, he took a flight from Hyderabad and reached Delhi on March 23.
“I stayed at the airport that day as, due to curfew, no transport service was available. On the morning of March 24, I took a flight from Delhi and reached Sahnewal. During this time, I never visited Nizamuddin,” he said.
‘TESTS ARE IMPORTANT’
He urged the people not to fall prey to misconception and get the test done if they have any Covid-19 symptoms. “I was asymptomatic, still I tested positive. It is through timely detection only that we can win over this virus. We should also show respect to the doctors and paramedical staff, who are risking their lives, to save us,” said Liaquat, who spent most of his time reading spiritual books, particularly the holy Quran Sharif during his treatment.
