Ex-bureaucrat’s Covid positive son goes missing: Family on the run too

The son of a retired Punjab bureaucrat and Sector 2 resident who tested positive for Covid-19 has been untraceable since Thursday, with his family also missing, the Panchkula civil surgeon has said in a police complaint.

Giving details, district Covid officer Dr Rajiv Narwal called it a “serious issue”, adding “we have sought legal action against family under the Epidemic Act for not cooperating with the health authorities.”

The police had been asked by the civil surgeon’s office to trace the patient immediately as he had to be isolated, Dr Narwal said, expressing surprise at “a highly educated family’s erratic behaviour.”

It was important for the patient to be isolated immediately to prevent spread of the infection, he said, adding that the deputy commissioner and director, health services, were aware of the matter.

PATIENT’S SON ALERTED HEALTH AUTHORITIES

It was the patient’s son, a doctor, who alerted district health authorities to his father’s Covid-19 status on Thursday after he tested positive on May 17 following treatment for oral cancer at a private hospital in Mumbai on May 7 and follow-up treatment at the hospital’s Delhi branch on May 16.

Dr Narwal said when health authorities visited the patient’s father at their Panchkula home, he claimed that the patient had not visited the family for the last 25 days.

Then, even as tracking the patient’s phone location revealed he was in Panchkula, another visit by the health team to his home on Friday proved unfruitful. Only his doctor son was present there.

“He is the only one in the family cooperating (with health authorities) and is keen that his father and other family members be quarantined without any further delay,” said Dr Narwal.

Meanwhile, district police commissioner Mohit Handa said he had received the copy of the complaint from the health department and that the matter was under consideration.

Of the 26 Covid-19 patients in the district so far, 23 have been cured and discharged and one has died even though the second sample tested negative.