Days after caretaker found covid-19 positive, four occupants in the shelter too test positive

Days after the caretaker of a shelter in central Delhi’s Jhandewalan was infected with Covid-19, four occupants from the shelter too tested positive for the disease

Days after the caretaker of a shelter in central Delhi’s Jhandewalan was infected with Covid-19, four occupants from the shelter too tested positive for the disease on Friday morning.

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Shelter number-14 serves over 50 people and they share common toilets and other facilities. Since the caretaker was tested, the shelter management decided to test those that showed symptoms. With the new cases, the rest will likely be quarantined.

According to Prabhas Chaudhary, supervisor of a cluster of nine such shelters in the area, said that the report has come positive for actually five occupants but because of a spelling mistake, authorities were not able to identify the other patient. “Nine persons with symptoms like fever and sore throat were tested on May 5 by a team of district health officials in a mobile van, five of who tested positive on Friday. All of them are aged between 30 and 45 years. We have requested authorities to reconfirm the status of the fifth person,” said Chaudhary.

While the test results came at in at around 11am, it was only until 4.30pm that the patients were taken to the isolation facility in Karol Bagh.

The cluster of nine shelters together house over 500 homeless people.

The caretaker had tested positive on May 4. He was then shifted to AIIMS Jhajjar quarantine facility.

Nidhi Srivastava, district magistrate (Central) said that only four persons in the shelter tested positive in the report that came on Friday morning. “We plan to move the occupants above 50 years old and those having ailments like tuberculosis to isolation facilities. The rest will be quarantined in the shelter itself,” said Srivastava.

She added that occupants of other shelters with symptoms were now being screened.

Sunil Kumar Aledia, a social activist who works for the homeless in the city, said that he will be writing to all district magistrates screen occupants in all the shelters under their jurisdiction. “So many people have complained of fever and other symptoms here but the screening started only after the caretaker tested positive. So many people are housed in these shelters. Just because they are poor doesn’t mean they are denied of their right to life and dignity. The government must understand the seriousness of the issue,” said Aledia.

At least 3725 persons are housed across the 223 regular shelter homes of the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB). Besides the Delhi government has converted 256 school buildings into temporary shelter homes to house thousands of migrants, who were stranded during the ongoing lockdown.