Covid -ve infant, 6-yr-old cousin still staying with +ve parents

Sarfaraz Ahmed | TNN | Apr 14, 2020, 04:56 IST

Nagpur: The six-month-old granddaughter of the Covid-19 victim tested negative in the second test as well within a span of seven days on Monday. The infant’s parents had tested positive on April 9. Her six-year-old cousin’s retest results are awaited, though she too was negative in the first test.
Both the minor cousins are currently staying with their coronavirus positive parents at different wards in Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH). Authorities are undecided about the future stay of these cousins.
They were among the 18 family members whose throat swab samples have been collected since April 6. The 68-year-old man had passed away on April 5 at Indira Gandhi Government College and Hospital (IGGMCH). The infant’s father is a son of the victim. The six-year-old is a child of the victim’s daughter. The infant’s father and the six-year-old girl’s mother are brother and sister.
The six-month-old’s father and mother are willing to hand her over to a relative, but GMCH authorities have reportedly rejected the suggestion. Instead, doctors were planning to shift her to MLA Hostel with a female health worker, much against the parents’ wishes.
The six-year-old’s mother and two siblings were shifted to another ward after they tested positive along with the infant’s parents. The six-year-old was then staying with her father, who tested positive on Sunday.
The six-year-old’s father had even asked a relative to come to GMCH to take her away. But doctors decided to test her again and held her back. The father is worried about both the minors staying among positive patients.
Another issue facing this family is there are no immediate women relatives who have not been placed in institutional quarantine, where they can easily shift the minors. Along with the six-year-old’s father, seven other relatives are in the same ward. Of these, six tested positive and haven’t been shifted since Sunday.
A relative told TOI that the father is unable to take care of the six-year-old as he has turned positive. “Since yesterday, he is avoiding going close to her. She hasn’t taken a bath for two days now,” the relative said, adding though she is now eating on her own from food packets.
Meanwhile, a 27-year-old man from the family blamed GMCH doctors for his infection. The man had no travel history and hasn’t even ventured out of home during the lockdown phase.
His 60-year-old mother and 30-year-old brother had been to the funeral of the 68-year-old man, during which they are said to have contracted the virus. The mother is a niece of the victim.
After being informed that his test was positive, the 27-year-old man was inconsolable and kept blaming the doctors for keeping him with high risk persons from his family at the isolation ward.