A resident of Defence Colony told The Indian Express, “From 10 pm to 1 am, the woman and her male relative were in the colony lane. She was distressed and crying, a crowd gathered around her.” (Representational)

An 18-year-old domestic help, who tested positive for Covid-19 Wednesday, was allegedly made to spend over three hours outside her employer’s house in posh Defence Colony late at night and was “escorted out of the colony by guards” as she waited for an ambulance. She was admitted to Nehru Homeopathic Medical College and Hospital around 6.30 am Thursday, said Deputy Medical Superintendent Dr Anu Kapoor. “She is stable and has a mild throat ache,” said Kapoor.

The woman, a resident of Kotla, claimed she began working for the family three days ago, said RWA president Major (retd.) Ranjit Singh. Last month, three members of the family tested positive. Police had, at the time, filed an FIR against the family’s guard over suspicion that he had visited the Nizamuddin Markaz and was responsible for infecting them. He later tested negative. “An ambulance was called, PCR too. She is admitted to a hospital,” said Singh.

A resident of Defence Colony told The Indian Express, “From 10 pm to 1 am, the woman and her male relative were in the colony lane. She was distressed and crying, a crowd gathered around her.”

Among the residents is a doctor, who said he reached out to the woman when he got a call from a neighbour around 10 pm: “She told me the family had employed her three days ago and when her Covid-19 positive result came, they asked her to leave. She was paranoid that she was positive, I calmed her down… gave her a PPE kit with gloves. Her relative also came. A PCR came twice to reassure that an ambulance was on its way.” He said the woman was standing with her bag and a mask.

The resident claimed that around 1 am, the woman and her relative were escorted out of the colony by guards, sent by the RWA. “This was done as all gates were closed and her relatives would have had difficulty entering the colony. Her other relatives were bringing her clothes. I don’t know what time the ambulance came…,” said the resident. He also claimed the “woman’s employers were nowhere to be seen”.

The family did not respond to calls but their close associate, also a resident of the colony, said “the woman’s relative works as a help in the house and had recommended her for the position of a full-time help. As the family had lost a member to Covid-19, and another was on ventilator for long, they insist that anyone working at their house gets tested. The woman was tested Tuesday, her result came on Wednesday. The family gave her a PPE and called her relative, who told them that he had called an ambulance.”

The associate said “they didn’t ask her to leave. Later, they found out that the ambulance was a non-Covid-19 one so it went back, so they called 102 around midnight, and don’t know what happened then”.