A nurse was beaten by a man at a Covid-19 isolation ward in south Kerala’s Kollam this week because his tea was late. The nurse, who had been working without a break for two weeks at the quarantine facility, was later admitted to the hospital with injuries, police said on Wednesday.
A case was registered against the accused who had recently returned from Muscat and was forced into the facility after violating the home-quarantine order. But the assault on the healthcare professional in Kerala wasn’t a one-off incident. There have been several incidents of such attacks in the state, prompting the state government to order the police to take strict action against the accused in such cases.
A senior police officer said they had started filing FIRs against people who attack or misbehave with nursing staff and other officials for doing their job. Like the ones deputed to ensure that people have been ordered to stay at home-quarantine don’t step out.
In Kozhikode, former MP AK Premajam is accused of misbehaviour with staffers who came to inquire about her son who was ordered to be quarantined at home. The former CPM MP denied the charge, insisting that she only intervened when “they behaved with her son like a convict”.
In another case, a 27-year-old man, who had also returned from a Gulf country, barged into the house of an Asha (social worker accredited with the health ministry) worker in Malappuram and attacked her. The man was angry that she had reported him to the authorities for flouting quarantine norms. The woman has been admitted to hospital. Police said the man had been arrested and sent to a quarantine facility at the medical college hospital.