Lost job six months ago, now COVID +ve, Nizamabad man struggles in UAE
By Dheeshma Published on 4 May 2020 3:16 PM GMT
Hyderabad: A 33-year-old man from Nizamabad district of the Telangana State was admitted to a UAE university three days ago after testing positive for COVID-19. The man alleged that he is yet to receive medical treatment.
“I have a severe cough and I don’t know who to tell about it. Other patients and I have been given some painkillers and antibiotics but no doctor or nurse has visited us so far. I even tried calling them on their phones, whose numbers were put on display here, but the phones are always engaged,” he said.
“I have two daughters, a son, a wife, and a mother back in Nizamabad. They are also worried about my condition. I want to reach home safely as soon as possible,” he added.
He was working as a fire and safety officer before he resigned, almost six months ago, due to the non-payment of salaries. Since then, he has been staying with his friends. It is said that he might have contracted the infection due to living in congested places.
“On March 29, I went for a medical checkup at the Sheikh Khalifa Medical Centre in Abu Dhabi. There I met a couple of people from the Telugu community. On March 30, I was declared COVID-19 positive and was shifted to the Al Ain University, UAE. I don’t know if the others were also moved here,” he said.
When NewsMeter contacted Roja, one of the social workers in Abu Dhabi, who works as an administrator to hospitals run by the Abu Dhabi government, she said that only chronic cases of COVID-19 are being admitted to the hospitals.
“The government has arranged thousands of field hospitals to take care of COVID-19 patients. The medical staff there are expected to monitor the patients on a daily basis. Only when the infection reaches a chronic state the patient is shifted to the main hospital,” Roja said.
She also said that neither the Telugu welfare organisations nor the embassy have a clear number of Telugu people stranded in Abu Dhabi. Only the nationality of the patients has been recorded in the documents so far.
