Two persons have been arrested after around half-a-dozen healthcare workers who had gone to a Meerut locality to get a coronavirus positive patient admitted to hospital were allegedly attacked with stones. (Express file photo: Vishal Srivastav) Two persons have been arrested after around half-a-dozen healthcare workers who had gone to a Meerut locality to get a coronavirus positive patient admitted to hospital were allegedly attacked with stones and chased away by a crowd late on Saturday evening. The family of the accused and others also allegedly tried to held a health worker captive, but he somehow managed to escape.
An FIR has been lodged at Partapur police station. “We are trying to identify others involved in the incident. More arrests are likely,” said Additional SP K K Bishnoi, also acting in-charge of Partapur police station.
As per the FIR, a team of health workers led by Dr Manish Kumar reached Meerut’s Mohiddinpur locality to get one Sukhbir Singh (30), who tested positive for Covid, admitted to a government hospital. Sukhbir’s mother, Amat Kaur (58), had died of Covid-19 on December 2.
“Our team was outnumbered by locals and the family members. They started pelting our personnel with stone and chased them away. One of our team members was even held captive by the mob but he managed to escape later. I have informed our senior officials about the incident,” Meerut Chief Medical Officer Dr Akhilsh Mohan told The Indian Express.
A similar attack on health workers was reported Meerut’s Kankarkheda locality 10 days ago. However, no police complaint was lodged.
Meanwhile, the Covid-19 death toll in the state rose to 7,924 on Sunday with 24 new fatalities, while 1,950 fresh cases took the infection tally to 5,54,944. Among the 24 new deaths, five were reported from Lucknow, three from Varanasi and two each from Kanpur and Ayodhya. Of the fresh cases, 283 were reported from Lucknow followed by 223 from Ghaziabad, 171 from Meerut, 138 from Gautam Buddh Nagar and 108 from Varanasi.
