Coronavirus Pandemic: People Complain About ‘Unhygienic’ Conditions at Quarantine Facility

The data, collected in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, states there is one doctor per 11,600 Indians, and one hospital bed per 1,826 Indians.

New Delhi| As cases of coronavirus mount in India, the government has amped up vigil and set up quarantine facilities to contain the spread of the infection.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, while making a statement in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, 17 March, said a lot of response appreciating the high-quality treatment at quarantine facilities has been received, according to The Hindu.

While a 45-year-old businessman from Delhi’s Mayur Vihar, who has fully recovered from the infection and thus been discharged from Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital, said his quarantine was “nothing less than a luxury hotel”.

However, accounts of unhygienic facilities in other parts of the country have cropped up on social media.

A woman, Navya Dua, who has reportedly been quarantined at a government facility in Delhi’s Dwarka police training school, on Monday, complained about the unsanitary conditions of her accommodation. In a video shared on Twitter, she shows that the quarantine facility is unclean and does not have enough toilets, triggering major hygiene concerns amid the outbreak of coronavirus in India.

I land at Delhi airport dated 16th March 1:00 am KLM airlines from Spain. I am subject to the 14 day quarantine at a govt facility in Dwarka police training school. I won’t say anything I just give some videos of our *sanitised* accommodation. @PMOIndia @WHO @CISFHQrs pic.twitter.com/vd4AnLBIkW

— Navya Dua (@NavyaDua) March 16, 2020

Another tweet for the same. We are more than 40 people with only 3 washrooms and 5 large bed rooms. They want us to stay sanitised and this is what they give us. Guys this is a A MAJOR CONCERN. this way India cannot contain coronavirus only will get more cases. @PMOIndia @WHO pic.twitter.com/5q1wcr0xKX

— Navya Dua (@NavyaDua) March 16, 2020

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Earlier, similar questions were raised at quarantine facility set up in Manesar. The Indians evacuated from China said that the facility has a scarcity of water and not enough toilets. “There are just five mobile toilets for over 300 people here. Each barrack has 22 beds. The toilets are in bad shape but we have been told the issue is being solved,” a student said while speaking to Times of India.

Another Twitter user, Ankit Gupta, posted pictures of stained sinks, unhygienic beds, and stray cats at Mumbai’s Kasturba Hospital.

“These bad conditions with poor sanitation, reckless staff attitude will not help contain the pandemic,” Gupta tweeted.

PLEASE HELP My friend is under observation at Ward 27 Kasturba Hospital Mumbai with 10 other patients. These bad conditions with poor sanitation, reckless staff attitude will not help contain the pandemic@narendramodi @PMOIndia @AmitShahOffice @DrHVoffice #CoronavirusPandemic pic.twitter.com/FExTQYrHNI

— ankit gupta (@ankuagarwal) March 12, 2020

Another Twitter user shared an image of a filthy bathroom at a facility where her daughter has been taken. “So this is where they have taken my daughter and telling her Tap water piyo ….. are these b******* mad . Now I understand why ppl are running away (sic),” she said.

So this is where they have taken my daughter and telling her Tap water piyo ….. are these bastards mad . Now I understand why ppl are running away ….. pic.twitter.com/YZFRLsc4MA

— Tinkerbell 11:11 (@tinkerbell9958) March 16, 2020

While the government is stepping up efforts to screen everyone, reports of several dodging hospitals without undergoing the tests have emerged across the country.

Three suspected coronavirus patients who had been quarantined left a government hospital in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district on Saturday evening without informing anybody.

Additionally, eleven people suspected of coronavirus infection fled from a hospital in Maharashtra’s Navi Mumbai on Monday. They were kept in isolation and their test results were awaited. The suspects have a travel history to Dubai. Panic had gripped Nagpur after four suspected coronavirus patients ran away from a government-run hospital late last week.

According to data collected by the Union Health Ministry, as of March 17, there is one isolation bed per 84,000 Indians, and one quarantine bed per 36,000 Indians. The data, collected in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, states there is one doctor per 11,600 Indians, and one hospital bed per 1,826 Indians.

Health experts say that this data may have spurred Prime Minister Narendra Modi to appeal for social distancing and call for a Janata Curfew—all in a bid to “flatten the curve” and space out the load on India’s stressed public health infrastructure.