Don’t Stigmatise COVID-19 Patients: TN Health Secretary Appeals

The appeal comes on the back of a number of members of the Tablighi Jamaat testing positive for coronavirus.

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Tamil Nadu Health Secretary Beela Rajesh urged people to not stigmatise those who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease COVID-19.

"Nobody wishes this virus upon themselves, so please do not stigmatise people who have tested positive. Let's be a little kind. The focus should be on treatment and cure,” appealed Tamil Nadu Health Secretary Beela Rajesh at the daily press briefing.

Her appeal comes on the back of a number of members of the Tablighi Jamaat, an Islamist organisation, testing positive for the coronavirus. Members from across states and some foreign countries had attended the Tablighi Jamaat conference held at its headquarters in New Delhi’s Nizamuddin between 8 March and 21 March.

Significantly, the Tamil Nadu Health Department has chosen to change the language it uses in its daily COVID-19 bulletins to ensure that those who test positive will not be further stigmatised.

‘Delhi Conference’ Replaced With ‘Single Source Event’

The daily health bulletin released by the Tamil Nadu Department of Health and Family Welfare on Monday, 6 April, replaced the words “Delhi conference” with “single source event” in order to prevent stigma around the event and the people who had attended it.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu recorded another COVID-19 death on Monday, taking the total number of fatalities in the state to six. A 57-year-old woman with travel history to Trichy, who admitted herself to Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai on Sunday with Severe Acute Respiratory Infection, (SARI).

Following her death on Monday morning, her test result for COVID-19 has come out positive, said Health Secretary Beela Rajesh.

The state also reported 50 new COVID-19 cases, with the number of infected persons rising to 621 in the state. Forty-eight of the 50 new cases are from the same source, said Tamil Nadu Health Secretary Beela Rajesh.

While the health department refrained from identifying the source, it was understood that those infected are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat. In Tamil Nadu, a total of 1475 samples have been tested from those who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat conference in Delhi out of which 573 returned positive.

855 samples have returned negative for the virus while 44 samples are being processed. Around 250 samples extracted from the contacts of those who had travelled to the conference and come back are also being processed in labs, she said.

The state currently has reported eight recoveries. Of the 621 cases, 110 are from Chennai.

Health Secretary Beela Rajesh also said that 500 contacts of the patient in Ariyalur, who had worked in Chennai’s Phoenix Mall, have been isolated so far and that none of them have shown any symptoms of the disease. The state has totally tested 5016 samples for COVID-19 across Tamil Nadu till Monday.

(This story has been published in an arrangement with The News Minute)