Coronavirus Uttar Pradesh Moradabad: Healthcare workers refuse to conduct door-to-door screenings

Health workers in Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad have refused to conduct door-to-door screening of residents for symptoms of coronavirus infection, a day after a team of doctors and other medical personnel was attacked by locals while collecting primary contacts of a COVID-19 patient. A team of police officers escorting the doctors was also attacked.

Addressing reporters today Sandeep Badolat, a member of the Pharmacists Association, said medical workers would continue to risk their lives to care for coronavirus patients, but asked for certain changes in protocols related to screening of potential patients.

"We are ready to work round the clock but it is not the duty of health workers to go door-to-door to quarantine suspected patients. Our duty is to conduct tests and provide them treatment. Health workers do not have the power to remove coronavirus suspects from homes. This is district administration work... police should do this," Mr Badolat told reporters.

People who need to be screened must be brought to the police station, or to a medical area, where health workers can attend to them, conduct coronavirus tests or, if necessary, take them to our quarantine centres, he explained.

"What happened in Moradabad was a tragic incident. For people who are working day and night in the fight against coronavirus, if something like this happens to them it is condemnable," he said, adding that he had raised this issue with senior officials and the nodal health officer.

A team of police officers and medical personnel were assaulted in western UP's Moradabad

Seventeen people (10 men, seven women) have been arrested for throwing stones and assaulting cops and doctors, according to Amit Kumar Anand, Superintendent of Police (Moradabad).

UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who had earlier invoked the stringent National Security Act (NSA) in such cases, said action will be taken against the accused under the same law.

Visuals from the Nawab Pura colony, located in the central part of the city, showed smashed police jeeps and a road littered with stones and bricks.

Amit Pathak, a senior police officer in Moradabad, said a COVID-19 patient had died in the area and the doctors were trying to quarantine his immediate contacts.

"A medical and police team came here. When family members were boarding ambulances, a crowd of around 150 people came and started throwing stones. A police car and ambulance were damaged," the officer added.

The Moradabad district has 19 coronavirus cases, according to state government data and has been declared as one of nine hotspots in Uttar Pradesh. Across the state 735 confirmed cases have been reported and 11 deaths have been linked to the virus.

The entire country is under lockdown to prevent the further spread of the contagious COVID-19 virus, which has infected over 10,000 people and been linked to 414 deaths.