Coronavirus Outbreak: Home Ministry Asks States To Get Tough With Those Who Attack Healthcare Workers

Several reports have been found from different parts of the country of healthcare workers, as well as security personnel being attacked, amid the lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Residents of Taat Patti Bakhal apologize to a team of doctors a day after health workers were attacked by some locals. (Image: PTI)

New Delhi: India is under 21-day lockdown to combat the novel Coronavirus and this unprecedented lockdown has brought forth changing behavioral patterns among the public. It is a matter of concern over that continuous attacks are taking place on doctors and nurses who are involved in serving the nation in the fight against Coronavirus. After series of such events that shocked the nation earlier this week, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs on Friday directed all state governments to take strict action against those who are found attacking and manhandling healthcare and frontline workers. Punya Salila Srivastava, the Joint Secretary in the Home Ministry, wrote to all states seeking security of the medical fraternity. She said the states have also been directed through video conferencing to take these incidences very seriously and act promptly. "The Home Ministry has also clearly instructed the states to ensure the security of the medical fraternity," Srivastava said during a regular press briefing related to the developments of novel coronavirus pandemic that has claimed 62 lives and over 2,900 confirmed cases across India. There are seven helpline numbers in the control room of the Union Home Ministry. Recently, the ministry introduced two more helpline numbers - 1930 (all India toll-free number) and 1944 (dedicated to the Northeast) for such complaints.

We have increased the number of helplines in MHA control room from 7 to 9.

The two new lines are - 1930 (All India Toll Free No.) & 1944 (a dedicated helpline for north-east) Helpline numbers of states and UTs can be found on our website#IndiaFightsCorona#COVID2019india 4/4 pic.twitter.com/JuIY2DKQR7 — Spokesperson, Ministry of Home Affairs (@PIBHomeAffairs) April 3, 2020

Several reports have been found from different parts of the country of healthcare workers, as well as security personnel, being attacked amid the lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic. In Madhya Pradesh on Thursday, seven people were arrested for allegedly attacking health workers in Indore. The residents of a locality in the city pelted stones at healthcare workers who went there to screen people for COVID-19. Two female doctors reportedly sustained injuries in the incident. Stones were thrown at the medical staff and police at the Hazrat Ganj Chowk of Qasim Bazar police station area in Munger in Bihar. The ambulances were also damaged. Locals alleged that the quarantine facility provided by the administration is like a prison. Some of the patients also ran away from the quarantine facility but were later caught by the police. In another incident, Tablighi Jamaat members quarantined at a Ghaziabad hospital allegedly misbehaved with the nurses, making indecent remarks and other obscene gestures, provoking the Uttar Pradesh government to invoke the stringent National Security Act (NSA) against them. ALSO WATCH | UP: Cops Attacked For Stopping People From Offering Namaaz The six Jamaat members at the district hospital were shifted to an isolation ward set up at a private educational institute after complaints received against them. They are among the thousands who attended a religious gathering at the organization’s New Delhi headquarters, now identified as a Coronavirus hotspot. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has called those involved in the incident “enemies of humanity”. “They will neither accept the law nor follow arrangements. Whatever they did with women health workers is a heinous crime,” he said on Friday. “The NSA is being invoked against them. We will not let leave them,” he said, in a government statement in Lucknow.