State ropes in religious leaders to counsel patients to accept treatment, not misbehave

Alarmed by the spike in number of infections among people who had attended various religious congregations, including the Tablighi Jamaat gathering in Delhi, the

Alarmed by the spike in number of infections among people who had attended various religious congregations, including the Tablighi Jamaat gathering in Delhi, the Ghaziabad officials have turned to religious leaders and sought their intervention in educating and counselling people put in quarantine and isolation wards.

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The step comes after multiple suspects kept in isolation wards at MMG Hospital in Ghaziabad allegedly misbehaved and harassed nurses and other medical staff on April 1. An FIR was also lodged against these persons suspected to have contracted the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) at religious gatherings attended in large numbers by members from countries where the pandemic had spread at the community level. One of these suspected cases later tested positive for Covid-19.

“Since majority of these people are not cooperating with the recommended line of treatment, we have decided to rope in religious leaders from their communities to counsel them. After the incident at MMG Hospital, we have also been directed to rope in male staff to attend to the suspected cases from religious congregations. We are also trying to put up CCTV cameras in quarantine facilities,” chief medical officer Dr NK Gupta said.

“The chief minister has directed us to rope in religious leaders of all the districts and will be holding a video conference with them on Sunday. In all, in UP, we have tracked 1,302 persons linked to the Delhi Tablighi Jamaat gathering and 1,000 are being sent to quarantine facilities. The search is on to find others and we are also getting calls from people reporting those who are trying to hide,” Awanish Awasthi, UP additional chief secretary (home), said in a press briefing at Lucknow.

On Saturday, officials of the district administration held meetings with religious leaders of different communities and asked them to persuade people to disclose if they were part of any large religious gatherings or were direct contacts of any person who was. The leaders were also asked to urge people to follow health protocols to contain the Coronavirus outbreak.

“The religious leaders will be given the mobile numbers of people in isolation/quarantine and have been asked to speak to them. They will pursue them to take up treatment and behave well with the health department staff. We expect that this measure will help in containing Coronavirus,” Dr Gupta said.

Chief medical superintendent at MMG Hospital Dr Ravinder Rana said another set of Covid-19 patients were brought to the hospital on Friday evening and they, too, were misbehaving.

“They were also misbehaving and spitting around in the isolation ward. Some police officers present in the hospital, when this happened, intervened. It is vital that patients cooperate and not endanger the lives of the medical staff and that of others,” he added.

After the April 1 incident, the Ghaziabad police have also beefed up security at quarantine facilities by deputing teams of personnel.

Meanwhile, state government officials on Saturday said they have asked district officials to strengthen tracking of people who attended the March 18 Tablighi Jamaat gathering and to contain the spread of Coronavirus infection in affected areas.

According to the state health department officials, there has been a sudden spurt in Covid-19 patients in the past two days. On Thursday, the number of positive patients in the state was 121 which shot up to 227 by Saturday afternoon.

“Ninety-four positive patients are linked to the Delhi gathering. Positive cases have now been reported from 27 districts against 16 districts two days ago. We are stepping up our efforts to contain Coronavirus infection in an aggressive manner to prevent community outbreak,” said Amit Mohan Prasad, UP principal secretary (health).