A Cancer hospital in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut put out an advertisement saying that it would not admit new Muslim patients without a COVID-19 negative certificate. The Uttar Pradesh police have launched a probe into the matter after people pointed it out on Twitter.
Meerut’s Valentis Hospital published an advertisement in a Hindi daily where it asked Muslim patients or any of their caretakers to come with a negative test report of COVID-19 for admission. The hospital said that because several patients are not following the safety guidelines, it had to resort to this. The Hospital wants the Muslim patient and their caretakers to under a test for COVID-19 before coming to the hospital.
Hospital refuses claims of discrimination
The hospital further said that because of some Muslim brothers, others need to suffer. It also said that it is for the larger good and is in the interest of Muslim brothers. The hospital refused to accept the discrimination claims as it has already treated several Muslim patients and justified the move as a precautionary measure. All the cases except two in the city are connected to the Tablighi Jamaat Congregation and hence this move has been taken, says Dr. Amit Jain who is a part of hospital administration.
The hospital administration further told the media house that people who need urgent medical care will be admitted but their swab samples will be sent for testing to the Meerut Medical College. As a testing fee, the patient is asked to pay a sum of 4,500. However, it sad that Muslim doctors, patients, police, judges, paramedics who don’t live in densely populated areas will be exempted from this rule.
Soon after Twitter users pointed out the advertisement and tagged Uttar Pradesh and Meerut Police, the latter put out a tweet saying the investigation regarding the same has been launched. Earlier, the central government had issued an advisory appealing people not to label communities or regions for the spread of COVID-19 in the country. In the advisory, it has also asked people not to name patients or those in the quarantine facility.
Meerut has so far reported 74 cases of the novel coronavirus. Uttar Pradesh has a total of 1,100 cases with 127 people recovering.
Source: Scroll.in
