TENKASI: Youth of Kalathimadam village, where a 43-year-old woman had tested positive for COVID-19 five days ago, claimed that their co-workers are stigmatising them. Exacerbating it is their employers' fear of contracting the virus. This has caused over 50 youth from the village losing their jobs.
T Raja, a youth from the village, said that people like him were being "ostracised by their co-workers" at their workplaces in some textile showrooms, grocery stores, mobile phone and television service centres, and rice mills, in the towns like Alangulam and Pavoorchatram. "Our colleagues stopped calling us for lunch and sharing their meals," he said. "Some of us are teased of being affected by the disease. A few shop owners had removed youths from the village from their jobs, temporarily, over fear. Milkmen from our village emptied their cans of milk on the road after their regular customers in neighbouring villages, including Kuthapanchan and Thalayathu, had refused to buy from them," he added.
'Village not source of infection'
The Kalathimadam COVID-19 patient had been undertaking treatment for cardiac disease at hospitals in Tenkasi and Surandai before she was referred to a private hospital in Madurai, where she tested positive for the infection, said Nettur Primary Health Centre Health Inspector G Gangadharan. "We suspect that she had contracted the virus at one of the hospitals, and not in her village. That is the reason we have not turned the village a containment zone," he said, adding that the patient's husband, four children, and nine neighbours tested negative.
'Isolation, not ostracisation'
Government Tenkasi Headquarters Hospital Superintendent Jesline said that COVID-19 patients and their contacts need wholehearted support from the public, saying that the patients should only be "isolated" and "not ostracised". "We have treated many COVID-19 patients and seen that their family members were not infected, even after a few days of staying with the patients, as they had followed the guidelines," he added.
Social activist A Dhiravidamani said that the State government should spread more awareness among the public, against stigmatising COVID-19 patients and those from their areas.