TRICHY: Protests by some of the Covid-19 positive Tablighi Jamaat delegates being treated at the Mahatma Gandhi memorial government hospital (MGMGH) in Trichy on Friday prompted the hospital to seek help from community leaders.Few patients among the 36 Covid-19 positive TJ members, isolated in the super specialty block in the hospital, demanded to meet the hospital dean Dr K Vanitha to air some grievances.When they were denied permission, the patients entered into an argument with some of the hospital staff. The hospital administration alleged some of the patients even threw their masks down, close to a nurse.The hospital administration brought the issue to the notice of the assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Srirangam range K Ramachandran and later Trichy collector S Sivarasu, who had come to the hospital to send off a 24-year-old man, who recovered from Covid-19 infection.“I have arranged for providing counselling to those patients to explain to them about the nature of treatment and the need to cooperate with doctors. In case of any disruption to the health workers, they will also be liable for action,” Collector Sivarasu told TOI.On receiving the information about the issue, came to the hospital.“They pulled off their masks and threw it down near a nurse, saying they are very healthy and they didn’t need it,” said TMMK Trichy deputy secretary T Abdul Raheem, who was called to mediate. He said the decision of the hospital administration to bring elderly women relatives of two positive patients to the hospital for isolation triggered the protest.“Since both of them are senior citizens and there is no one to take care of them in the hospital, the patients demanded that the hospital quarantine them at home,” said Abdul Raheem. “I have calmed them and they have agreed to cooperate with the doctors following which the elderly women were brought to the hospital this afternoon,” Raheem said.