TUMAKURU: The kin of the COVID-19 victim who died in Sira on Friday are not only facing social stagma but also lacking in adequate medical care at the hospital where they have been isolated.
According to a source, two grandchildren of the victim -- one-year-old twin girls - have been crying since morning for milk. Their mother has no milk to feed them and she has also been weeping helplessly.
Perhaps the outcries of the wailing sirens of the fire tenders, the ambulances and the police warnings to people to keep indoors have drowned their cries.
The facilities in the new building which was constructed by the Health and Family Welfare department to house the Mother-Child Hospital are reportedly not upto the mark.
"The food has been supplied through a window and pleas to meet the requirements of the inmates have been falling on deaf ears," alleged the source.
Two more minors -- also the grandchildren of the victim -- have been ailing with neurology problems since childhood and have no tablets to take.
As many as 19 people including the two babies and seven other minors have been kept in the isolation ward and the results of their tests are expected to arrive soon. "Inshallah, we hope the reports are negative", the source remarked.
Meanwhile, the authorities have taken all measures including sanitisation of the roads in Sira town.
The fort town held significance prior to the British Raj as the Bijapur Sultans and Mughals had ruled the province with Sira as the headquarters, which is why the town has a large Muslim community.
It is famous for the Mallik Rehan Darga, the tomb of the governor of the province from 1638 to 1687 whom the community considered a 'holy person'.
"Now with this incident, a section of people in Sira has been looking at the community suspiciously and this issue should be addressed," said Gomaradahalli Manjunath, a progressive writer from a village in Sira.