Gujarat: Identity of Covid-19 infected persons made public for violating home-isolation rules

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) on Saturday made public the identity of eight home isolated coronavirus infected persons in the city for violating the guidelines. The civic authority said that cases are being registered against them under pandemic act and they would be charged for their treatment as punishment at covid-19 care centres where they were brought.

In a press statement, the AMC mentioned the name, age, gender, address and phone numbers of eight such persons who were not found at their homes when a team of doctors visited them. The civic officials said that "this exercise will continue to check the infection from spreading." This comes on a day when the state recorded 1,046 new positive cases in the last 24 hours, out of which Ahmedabad city reported 161, the highest in the state.

When the pandemic broke out in April-May, the AMC and civic bodies of other cities had started making the names and addresses of infected persons public but they discontinued the practice after criticism. In some cases, petitions were also filed to make names of infected persons public which were rejected by the court.

"I have no idea if my name and other details have been made public. I had gone out to buy lemon and orange for myself as advised by the doctors when the team of AMC arrived at home. They called me over phone and I returned in barely five minutes. There is no one at home except my 65-year-old father to fetch these essentials for me as I have sent my wife and children to my relatives' place. How else could I have bought these things and other essentials? None of the neighbours come for help," Ankit V Parmar, one of the eight persons who were found violating home-isolation rules, told DH over phone.

When asked if he was aware of any police case, Parmar said, "If they file any case, I will straight away go to police and ask them to put me behind bars. I don't even have money for this covid care centre expenses. I would prefer to go to jail."