Home isolation for patient resented

Kullu, August 19

The panchayat representatives and residents of Kais village staged a dharna outside the SP office today after the district administration sent a Covid positive youth for isolation at his home in the village yesterday. The villagers did not allow the youth to enter the village and sent him to Kullu in the same ambulance in which he had arrived. He is now undergoing treatment in Kullu.

Kais panchayat president Youm Devi said there were children and elderly in the house of the infected person, and it was not right for him to stay there. It was not justified for the administration to shirk the responsibility of taking care of Covid patients.

Youm Devi said the district administration should treat Covid positive patients at the District Dedicated Covid Care Centres or isolation centres. The infection could spread in rural areas if the patients were sent to the villages, she said.

She alleged that her husband and former panchayat president Paras Ram Negi had uploaded a video on social media resenting the move of the district administration, and now he was being harassed by the police.

The villagers and panchayat representatives shouted slogans outside the SP office. The matter was resolved on the intervention of local MLA, Sunder Singh Thakur. — OC