BLOGS
The Truth About Agra Woman Who Was Accused Of Escaping Coronavirus Quarantine Facility, And Shamed Online
by
Tushar Gupta - Mar 15, 2020, 10:32 am
TOI report
Snapshot
A woman, whose husband has tested positive for Coronavirus, was recently accused in a news report of escaping from a COVID-19 quarantine facility.
She, however, didn’t escape. it turns out. Here’s what her family has to say.
Yesterday (14 March 2020),
The Times of India (TOI) ran a
report titled ‘
Infected techie’s wife fled B’luru by air, took Del-Agra train, tests +ve’. The report was filed from Agra and was carried in both print and online platforms of the news agency.
The report quoted health officials as saying that the wife, who had recently returned from her honeymoon in Italy and was put under quarantine after her husband showed symptoms of the disease, escaped from Bengaluru on 8 March, took a flight to New Delhi, and then went to Agra to be with her parents.
The first version of the report said that the techie (to be referred to as Mr. H from here on) had been tested positive for COVID-19 (coronavirus) on 7 March. The dates, as the disclaimer on the updated digital report suggests, came from the Agra health officials. The updated report says that Mr. H, a Google employee, was tested positive on 12 March. The last update to the report was made at 22:05 IST on 14 March.
The report also accused the wife of Mr. H (to be referred to as Mrs. H from here on) of resisting the attempt of the health officials to take her and eight other family members to isolation wards, and it was only after the intervention of the district magistrate and police force that Mrs. H could be taken to an isolation ward along with her family members.
Further, the report also stated that the father of Mrs. H, a railway engineer, refused to cooperate with the team of health officials and also lied that his daughter had left for Bengaluru.
The other details included the couple’s return date, 27 February, from their honeymoon to Italy, Greece, and France. On 7 March, the report states, that the husband tested positive, and they both were quarantined in Bengaluru. Mrs. H, as per the same report, returned to Agra on 8 March.
Filed from Agra, the report was first accessed by this correspondent on Saturday morning. A clipping of the newspaper report had started going viral on social media, especially on Twitter. At the time of writing this article, the report has more than 1,350 comments, almost all of them demeaning and disrespectful.
Among other things, many social media users called for the arrest of Mrs. H. Some even demanded the invoking of Section 3 of the Epidemic Diseases Act. Other remarks online ridiculed the couple for their irresponsibility and callous attitude.
Late on Saturday,
Swarajya reached out to the younger sibling or Mr. H. In a phone conversation with this correspondent, the brother of Mr. H (to be referred to as Mr. J from here), discussed how the family had been shaken by the reactions online, and how the chronology of events being reported was completely false.
Mr. J spoke with
Swarajya on the condition of anonymity
, and for the security of their family, no personal information shall be disclosed in this report.
The couple got married sometime in mid-February. The correspondent learned that the couple travelled to Athens, Greece, from Delhi for their honeymoon on 23 February.
(Highlighted in Green) The two e-tickets the couple booked for their trip from Delhi to Athens, Greece. This trip was scheduled for 23 February. Prior to this flight, the couple took a flight from Mumbai to New Delhi.
As per Mr. J, the couple travelled to Greece, Switzerland, and France, and took a flight on 6 March 2020, from Paris, France, to Mumbai. The flight had a small layover in Munich, Germany.
Mr. J emphasised that the couple, his elder brother and sister-in-law, had never gone to Italy in the first place, as reported. Also, they had returned to Mumbai, India, on 6 March midnight, while the TOI report stated the couple had returned on 27 February.
(Highlighted in Green) The couple boarded their flight home on 6 March, and not 27 February, as the report suggested. Also, the couple took their flight from Paris, France, and had a brief layover in Germany. The couple travelled to Greece, Switzerland, and France on their trip.
Mr. J told
Swarajya that the couple passed through the screening process at the Mumbai airport, where they were checked for body temperature and signs of flu. The couple cleared the screening process and spent the weekend at their parents’ residence (parents of Mr. H and J) in Navi Mumbai.
On 8 March evening, the couple took a flight from Mumbai to Bengaluru. The flight was to land at 9:45 pm in Bengaluru. Until then, Mr. H exhibited no signs of flu whatsoever.
The couple didn’t leave the airport, as Mrs. H was scheduled to leave for Delhi from the Bengaluru airport at 01:40 am (9 March), only a few hours later.
Mr J told
Swarajya that the couple, given the excessive luggage from their honeymoon, decided to fly together to Bengaluru, instead of Mrs. H directly leaving for Delhi.
Mrs. H was leaving for Agra to be with her family for her first
Holi after marriage. It is a prevailing tradition in many parts of the country where the girl spends her first
Holi not at her in-laws, but at her parents’ place.
Against what was stated in the TOI report, the couple never left the Bengaluru Airport, and thus did not escape any quarantine facility. Mr. H returned home after his wife departed for Delhi. Until then, he showed no signs of any fever.
(L): The two tickets booked from Mumbai to Bengaluru for 8 March evening. (R): A single ticket for the wife, for a flight that was scheduled to leave merely 4 hours after their first flight landed. Contrary to what has been mentioned in the report, the e-tickets suggest that the wife had not been to the city, and did not escape from any quarantine facility.
On Monday (9 March) morning, Mr. H returned to work at his office in Bengaluru. The same morning, Google conducted an internal screening process where they did not permit anyone with a temperature higher than normal to work. Mr. H passed this process and was allowed into the office premises.
However, he started complaining of a headache a few hours later. Attributing the condition to lack of sleep, he returned home merely three-four hours later. By evening, Mr. H was running a high fever. Mr. J helped his brother with some basic medicines for fever, believing it was another routine flu.
Even on the morning of 10 March, the high fever persisted. Mr. J, speaking to the manager at his workplace, thought it would be ideal to get his brother screened for COVID-19, as by that time, the news of the virus outbreak was making headlines.
Mr. J accompanied his brother to the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases in Jayanagar, Bengaluru. In the evening, Mr. H, voluntarily, submitted the necessary samples for testing. Mr. H was told by the health officials that the results could take upto 72-hours as the samples are sent to Pune.
However, they were also told that they would be reached out to within 24-hours if anything risk worthy was found in the testing.
(Highlighted in Green): The report for the first test that was conducted on 10 March, evening. The same report was made available to the family of the couple by 12 March, confirming that the techie had tested positive for COVID-19. This was on 12 March, and not on 7 March, as the initial TOI report stated.
On the evening of 11 March, Mr. H got a call from the doctor who told him that he was being moved to a hospital as they were suspecting him to be positive for COVID-19. However, a confirmation of the same was not shared with them at this point.
By 11 March late-night, Mr. H was admitted to the Jayanagar General Hospital. Mr. J, who stayed at home, was asked to be in self-quarantine and report if he too suffered from any symptoms. By 12 March noon, the family had the confirmation of Mr H. being tested positive for coronavirus. His vitals were checked and he was put under observation.
A few pages from the reports of the techie when he was admitted at the Jayanagar General Hospital. On Page 3, the patient is described as ‘suspected for coronoavirus’. As told by his younger brother, the confirmation came on 12th morning, and not on 7 March, as the TOI report suggested.
By this time, the medical team in Agra had swung into action. They reached Mrs. H and requested her and her family to accompany them for testing. However, upon reaching the premises, Mrs. H, to her dismay, discovered that the place was filthy and reeking of bad smell.
Mrs. H was in Agra on 9 March itself while her husband, as per the updated report of TOI (and as confirmed by Mr. J), Mr. H. tested positive on March 12.
Health officials in Agra allowed Mrs. H and her family to return home and be in isolation. Her first samples were collected on 12 March.
The next day (13 March), the health officials returned to her place and requested her and the family to accompany them to the isolation ward. Mrs. H, knowing the hygiene conditions of the facility, resisted.
Images of the isolation ward in Agra where the wife of the Google techie was taken on Day 1. She took these photos and shared them with her brother-in-law. On 13 March, while she was moved to a better facility, her family was asked to remain at the same ward.
Mr. J told
Swarajya that Dr. Mukesh Kumar Vats, Chief Medical Officer of Agra, told Mrs H that her concerns would be taken care of.
However, while Mrs. H was moved to a better facility, the family was required to move to the same ward. While Mrs. H’s first test, conducted on 12 March afternoon, was inconclusive and showed no signs of her being positive for COVID-19, a second test was conducted on 14 March, reports for which are awaited. Her family has tested negative for COVID-19.
The
TOI report blames the couple for being irresponsible and singles out Mrs. H for flying from Bengaluru to Delhi after escaping a quarantine facility. However, as per the sequence of events shared by the family, Mrs. H did not leave the Bengaluru airport and her husband (Mr. H) did not test positive for COVID-19 until 12 March.
At the time of writing this report, Mrs. H, rattled by the hate she, her husband, and her family received online, was waiting for the results of her second test.
Mr. H, meanwhile, is stable and is undergoing treatment for COVID-19.
Tushar Gupta is a senior sub-editor at Swarajya. He tweets at @tushjain15.
