As the world grapples with the coronavirus, people in most countries are turning to their governments and public healthcare systems to batt...
As the world grapples with the coronavirus, people in most countries are turning to their governments and public healthcare systems to battle the pandemic. In India, however, the situation is different. With a public healthcare system that is in a shambles, many Indians are looking with suspicion at the state’s efforts to battle the Covid-19 disease, creating complications for health authorities to grapple with.
This was illustrated by the case of the Agra woman who hit the headlines last week after media reports falsely reported that she had fled quarantine. As it turns out, the woman who had recently returned from Europe but resisted the option of being isolated public health facility even though her husband began to show Covd-19 symptoms. “The sight of the unhygienic condition of the toilets made her retch,” her brother-in-law told the Times of India.
So strident was this family’s objection to accessing the Uttar Pradesh public health system that the district magistrate had to intervene on Thursday to allow the authorities access to the family, Agra’s chief medical officer Dr Mukesh Kumar Vats told the Times of India. On Sunday, the Uttar Pradesh police booked the woman’s father-in-law under the Epidemic Act and could be jailed for...
