Month After Man Dies Of Corona, SMS On His Phone: ‘Sample Collected For COVID Test’

Patiala: A month after Patiala’s Saleem Khan died of coronavirus at an Ambala hospital, there was an SMS on his phone – which is now in his widow Sonia’s possession — from ‘myGOV’, stating: “Rapid Antigen sample collected for Saleem Khan (Id:03041252464) SRFID 0304100252813 on Dec 2, 2020, 10:14 AM… You are advised to isolate yourself till the sample is tested and test report is available”.

A PDF file accompanying the message said that the testing was done at a Patiala laboratory.

About six hours later, another text message arrived from ‘PBGOVT’ stating that “Rapid Antigen sample taken for Saleem Khan, has come Negative”, The Indian Express reported.

Sonia, having lost her husband on October 31, was left flabbergasted.

“How is it possible that my husband’s sample was taken for COVID-19 test on December 2 at 10:14 am, when he had died on October 31. I am totally confused, what is this going on?” she was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

“My husband, who was working in a private factory, had some symptoms after which he got tested for COVID-19 and sample was taken for RT-PCR test on October 14. He had then tested positive… He initially underwent treatment at Rajpura Government Hospital, and later he was admitted to Mission Hospital at Ambala, where he succumbed to COVID. We even took his death certificate from Grama Panchayat, Ambala.”