Medical Team Tasked With Contact Tracing Of COVID-19 Patient Allegedly Attacked In MP Village

A medical team that was tasked with contact tracing and sample collection of a COVID-19 patient who died of the infection has alleged that they were abused and attacked while on duty.

The incident was reported from Jafrabad village in Madhya Pradesh's Indore on Saturday afternoon.

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Medical team in-charge Prabha Kharve said that a resident of Ayodhya ward of the village had died on Friday and his report came back positive for coronavirus on Saturday.

When the team reached the village for contact tracing and collection of samples for testing, a man arrived and allegedly abused them and threw stones along with some others.

A probe is underway after the medical team filed a complaint, said Manpur police station in-charge Hitendra Rathore.

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"We want strict action in this matter or else it will be tough for us to work during the outbreak," Kharve said.

This is not the first time medical teams on COVID-19 duty have come under attack in Indore.

Earlier, in April a medical team was pelted with stones in Indore's Tatpatti Bakhal area while they were on duty.

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After the video of the incident went viral, triggering massive outrage, those behind the assault were arrested and booked under the National Security Act (NSA).

Even after they came under attack, Dr Zakiya Sayed who was part of the team said they will continue their duty. ¡°We had been working on the screening of contacts for the last four days. But what we saw yesterday, we had not seen it earlier. We sustained injuries but we have to do our job and will not be scared,¡± Dr Zakiya Sayed had said.

Indore is the worst COVID-19 hit district in Madhya Pradesh and accounts for 4,288 of the total 11,724 cases in the state. Out of the 501 deaths in Madhya Pradesh, Indore accounts for 193.

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Though it is the worst affected in the state, in recent days Indore has been showing signs of improvement. The rate of infection has slowed down and currently, there are only 927 active COVID-19 cases in Indore.

Indore's positivity rate has been on the decline since June 1 and according to Mahendra Sharma, Chief Medical and Health Officer, the transmission chain of coronavirus has been broken as people are following lockdown guidelines.

"People of Indore have followed guidelines of COVID-19 lockdown, so the chain of transmission has broken. It is a good thing and people should continue to practice social distancing and also take other precautionary measures," Sharma said last week.