Tabligh worker without Covid dies in quarantine without food and medicine
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A man boards an ambulance at a quarantine centre before being taken to Allahabad Naini Central Jail following his arrest along with others for violating COVID-19 coronavirus prevention guidelines while attending a religious congregation last month at New Delhi'
New Delhi: A Tabligh worker, hailing from Tamil Nadu, who tested Coronavirus negative, died at the quarantine facility of Delhi government, where he was allegedly not provided proper food and timely medicines.
Mohammed Mustafa of Brindavan Circle in Coimbatore, died at Delhi Development Authority’s building in Sultanpuri where he was lodged after testing negative. The death happened while he was in the isolation ward of Rajiv Gandhi Institute where he was admitted from Tabligh Jamaat Head Quarters at Nizamuddin without any symptoms. After the death, those put in quarantine in the facility protested for non-supply of food and medicine for lifestyle diseases.
The number of those who are lodged in DDA building at Sultanpuri, where initially 200 people were lodged, had crossed 500 after Tabligh activists initially admitted in different hospitals were also shifted. However, the Delhi government’s failure to provide adequate food and medical facilities have pushed the isolated people into misery. Many of the inmates, who were not provided food for two days, were deprived of medicines too. The doctors who paid a nominal visit at the facility did not attend to the patients, said Inayathullah who was with Mohammed Mustafa at the facility.
Mohammed Mustafa’s condition worsened on Tuesday night, after he complained for long hours of lack of medicine for diabetes. The collective demand of the Tabligh workers in the facility to take him to a doctor fell on deaf ears of the authorities. Hence, the condition of Mohammed Mustafa aggravated and he succumbed to death on Wednesday morning.
No doctors turned up to attend to Mustafa until he breathed his last. As he died, the inmates started to protest and authorities came to take the dead body. The authorities' move to do an autopsy of the deceased also led to strong protest. Eventually, the dead body was moved by the authorities by 11 am.
The volunteers who visited the DDA building said that the police standing guard at the facility permit such distribution of food and medicines only after obtaining an approval from Rohini district magistrate who is in charge of the facility.
All India Muslim Personal Board member Fatima Muzaffar criticized that Mustafa’s death was due to failure in providing medicine at the right time and people are lodged in quarantine facility without any organised system. She urged the Delhi government to intervene in the issue immediately.