The 18-year-old boy who tested positive for coronavirus in Kolkata has been trolled on social media for being irresponsible and not getting himself tested after landing in Kolkata from London on the 15th of March.
His mother is a high-level bureaucrat in the Trinamool Congress administration, is also being trolled for ignoring the travel advisory for her son to get checked at Beliaghata Infectious Diseases (ID) hospital after he landed.
Social media users have got hold of the 18-year-old’s name along with that of his mother and their pictures. These have been posted on various virtual platforms, labelling them as being irresponsible for putting several people at risk in Kolkata despite coming from a highly-infected country like the UK. Not only that, he lived with friends in London, who tested positive for Covid-19 and travelled from UK to Delhi and then to Kolkata, putting several passengers at risk. Police are now tracing the travel history of passengers who were in the same flights as him.
His mother has also been named by certain media houses, apart from being trolled on social media platforms. Angry social media users are questioning how the bureaucrat got away with not getting her son tested and even put the entire Government establishment at risk. Her son reportedly visited her in Nabanna, the State secretariat after he landed in Kolkata. Nabanna also houses West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s office and the bureaucrat also attended administrative meetings after her son landed in Kolkata.
Social media users question how irresponsible the family could have been, to put several people at risk in Kolkata, as the boy visited 4-5 places after he landed over the next two days, including Nabanna, malls, MR Bangur hospital and his relatives in Howrah. In addition to that, the patient has also put residents in his building at risk. He got admitted to Beliaghata ID hospital on the 17th of March and tested positive in the evening. His parents and two drivers were put in isolation and have tested negative for Covid-19 on Wednesday.
A section of Kolkatans on social media, are calling it high-handedness on part of the State administration, as the boy got away without getting tested for two days and staying in isolation.
On Wednesday Mamata Banerjee said, “This is not a home-grown case. This boy came from UK. Why won’t we be responsible enough to do tests? Yesterday’s (Wednesday) incident has shown us all. I won’t tolerate this VIP culture. He went out even when doctors told him to be in isolation.”
