Coronaphobia Virus - Warriors Live In Torment

Many doctors, nurses treating COVID-19 patients threatened by landlords and neighbours even as govt assures action

- Ajay Kumar & Chayyanika Nigam

A 25-YEAR-OLD nurse employed with the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of a major government hospital has been locked inside her room by her hostel warden since March 24 in South Delhi’s Hauz Khas area. Her roommate, a 25-year-old nurse who works in the operation theatre of a private hospital in the Capital, was also asked to choose between keeping her job and staying in the hostel.

Both eventually decided to take leave and stay away from work. Or else they would have had to vacate their room. “We called the police twice after the warden and the residents harassed us. They wanted to throw us out of the hostel as, according to them, we were dangerous for them and potential carriers of Coronavirus,” one of the nurses told Mail Today.

As cases of Coronavirus continue to rise in Delhi and beyond, dozens of professionals from healthcare and other sectors have taken to social media to complain about the alleged discrimination they are facing at the hands of the landlords who have asked them to vacate their homes since they were in close contact with the infected patients.

Most victims Mail Today spoke with did not want to be identified fearing professional retaliation.

UNFRIENDLY NEIGHBOURS

In another case from the Capital, a house surgeon in a government hospital was asked to vacate the rented flat in Rohini, where he stays with his wife and two children, earlier this week. He has sent his family to their home town in Lucknow. “The locals called me names like ‘Coronavirus’, ‘dirty’, ‘dangerous’, ‘bomb’ and ‘killer’,” said the doctor.

“As if working in a stressful situation was not enough. And now this harassment has started. However, after police intervention, the landlord has stopped, but I am afraid that he won’t renew my rent agreement – which is expiring in April,” he said.