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Coronavirus (COVID-19): Seventeen people were arrested in Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad city on Wednesday after health workers and policemen were attacked in Nawabpura locality while trying to quarantine the family members of a patient who died of COVID-19.
Seven people — a doctor, three medical workers and three policemen — were injured in the attack labelled an “inhuman crime” by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Moradabad Circle Officer Rajesh Kumar said the man, who was in his fifties, died on Monday night, hours after his medical report confirmed that he had contracted the virus.
Chief Medical Officer MC Garg said 11 people, including the patient’s family members, were set to be quarantined. The police said the patient’s family members did not oppose the move to quarantine them.
“We went to Nawabpura to take four men to a quarantine facility from the family of a COVID-19 victim,” said Dr SC Agarwal, who was wounded in the attack. “As the family members sat in the ambulance, some people attacked us and began pelting stones. We tried to take shelter and an elderly person saved me while the police arrived.”
Adityanath said the attackers would be booked under the National Security Act (NSA). “The attack on the members of the health, police and sanitation department in Moradabad is an inhuman crime which is condemnable. Action under NSA will be taken against them,” he said, adding that the police had been directed to identify the attackers, and that the “cost of property damage will also be recovered from the accused”.
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