Coronavirus: Kashmiri Priest Who Travelled To Tablighi Jamaat Dies After Doctors Refuse To Admit Him

The death of a Kashmiri businessman and an Ismaic preacher associated with the Tablighi Jamaat has pointed to the negligence of authorities in containing the coronavirus spread.

According to Firstpost, days before his death, the doctors refused to admit 65-year-old Islamic preacher Mohammad Ashraf Anim to the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences Bemina in Srinagar and didn¡¯t even carry out his test. In spite of having symptoms of the disease and also that he had travelled. The reason given, according to the family members, was that Anim has no history of international travel and the hospital has restricted itself from testing such cases. Anim as per family, was asked to isolate himself at home.

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According to his nephew Zafar, who is a doctor, Anim was taken to SKIMS Bemina on March 21 but even as doctors had written on his medical card that he was suspected covid-19 case. They refused to admit him to the hospital. Later, when the family shifted him on its own to SKIMS Hospital in Soura, he was not tested there and was only admitted to the Chest disease Hospital on that following day. It was there only he breathed his last.

Representative image - AFP

The covid-19 patient had provided the doctors his travel history - it included his visit to the Tablighi centre at Nizamuddin in Delhi and to Uttar Pradesh as well. He has travelled outside Kashmir between 7 and 16 March. The hospital records reveal that he showed symptoms of COVID-19 on 21 March at SKIMS Bemina, including high fever. After his condition was getting worse he was shifted from his residence at Hyderpora to SKIMS Bemina but the doctors refused to admit him there.

Representative Image - AFP

Zafar the nephew of Anim had said ¡°We revealed our entire travel history to the doctors at the SKIMS, including his visit to the mosque at Nizamudin, but they refused to carry out any tests. We even revealed his prior travel history during the month of January. The doctors told us that he should be home quarantined and they were only testing those who had an international travel history. So we decided to get him back to our home before we shifted him to the CD Hospital, where he was admitted to the isolation ward and died due to lung inflammation¡±.

Zafar said that they even arranged for an ¡°oxygen cylinder from one of our relatives who already has a medical complication". And as Anim's condition deteriorated, we instantly shifted him to the SD Hospital where he passed away.¡±

He further added ¡°My uncle was diabetic and also suffered from hypertension; there are no specialist doctors at the CD Hospital and he was not managed well."

Kashmir's officer for the coronavirus, SM Kadri, said, "We are following the health guidelines strictly. The high-risk contacts ¡ª who are the family members of the coronavirus-positive cases ¡ª are being tested irrespective of whether they are symptomatic or asymptomatic for the disease. The neighbours who are in the low risk category are being tested if they have the symptoms." he spoke