Odisha COVID-19 Patient Shares His Experience After Recovering From The Virus

Bhubaneswar: Pratap Dalabehera, who was recently discharged from the hospital after recovering from novel coronavirus (COVID-19), on Sunday shared his experience with mediapersons.

“My family members were shocked after my elder brother tested positive for the virus. We had no idea how he contracted the virus. My niece (daughter of the elder brother) some days ago had gone to Kolkata for some urgent work and returned to Bhubaneswar the same day. The Health Department said that my niece had carried the virus from Kolkata. Had she returned during the lockdown period, she would have remained on quarantine.

“After my elder brother was kept in hospital isolation at AIIMS, the Health Department conducted the sample test and found seven other members including me, my wife, my niece, wife of my elder brother and three members, who are staying on rent in my brother’s house as positive. After five days, another round of test was conducted in which I, my elder brother’s wife and three rented persons tested negative while my wife and niece were positive. After two days, all seven persons were shifted to Ashwini COVID Hospital in Cuttack and stayed there for five days,” Pratap said.

He said the behaviour and treatment of the entire staff in the hospital were excellent, and that his brother, wife, daughter and niece are currently undergoing treatment at the Ashwini Hospital and are showing signs of improvement.

Stating that they are now kept in quarantine in Hotel Paradise since Saturday night, Pratap said that they are facing difficulty in getting food. “I had called 104 and told them about our problem. But the Health Department staff told me that they only deal with health-related problems. However, the hotel staff managed to provide us with the food,” he added.