The man’s daughter cried as she tried to take a bottle of water to her Covid positive father.
Hyderabad:
A daughter wept loudly as she fought her own mother to try and give water to her Covid positive father, who had been shunned by their village, in a video from Andhra Pradesh. This is one of the many distressing stories that have emerged in the deadly second wave of the pandemic in the country.
The man, 50, who worked in Vijaywada, had returned to his village in Srikakulam after testing positive. But he was not allowed into the village, much less his own home.
He was forced to stay in a hut near the fields outside the village.
The video, apparently filmed by a villager who watched the tragic scenes without helping, shows the man’s 17-year-old daughter sobbing as she tried to take a bottle of water to her father, and is held back by her mother, who was afraid of her catching the infection.
The man lay on the ground as his daughter ran to him and was finally able to give him the water. The person who filmed the video is heard saying earlier there are no hospital beds available to treat the man, who died shortly afterwards. The family also tested positive. He is also heard telling the family they can go to the man since they are all positive.
The video pans around to show there are more people watching the happenings from a distance.
The incident exposes the stigma attached to a Covid infection – more contagious in the second wave – in the villages of the country, even within families.
Andhra Pradesh reported around 20,000 cases and 71 deaths in a day. So far, the state has logged about 11 lakh cases.
In another incident, a 55-year-old woman died on Sunday within hours of being admitted to a government hospital with high fever and a cough at Nandigama.