Condemning the ‘stigma’ attached to the people infected with coronavirus, the Union Health Ministry on Monday called upon the public to respect the healthcare workers and other frontline professionals who are at the forefront of tackling the spread of coronavirus in the country. At the government’s daily press briefing on the coronavirus situation in the country, Union Health Ministry’s Joint Secretary Luv Agarwal stressed that “the fight was against the disease, rather than the patient.”
“There is a lack of awareness in society about the spread of coronavirus. If we attach a stigma to the person, then they might fear coming forward and disclose the infection,” said Agarwal, adding that the process was affecting the entire treatment process and hindering the check of the disease.
Agarwal said that recovered patients can’t be a source of transmission of the disease. “They are a source of healing, through the antibodies they possess,” said Agarwal. He revealed during his briefing that as of Monday, more than 22 per cent of those infected by the virus in India till date had managed to recover.
Interestingly, the World Health Organisation has said that there was no evidence to prove that cured people couldn’t be a source of second infection.
In a scientific brief published by the global health body on April 25, it said that there was no evidence whatsoever that “people who have recovered from COVID-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection.”
A total of 6,184 patients, or 22.17 per cent of 27,982 people who have been infected with the virus in India till date, have pulled off a recovery. Three hundred and eighty-one (381) patients were cured in the last 24 hours and 1,396 cases have emerged, noted the official.
Addressing the presser before Agarwal, Union Home Ministry’s representative Punya Salil Srivastava that 80 per cent of the wheat in country’s fields had been harvested till date, and 80 per cent of the mandis (wholesale markets) were in operation. She reassured that rural workers were getting back to work due to employment opportunities created by schemes such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).