Mumbai: An Odisha native, who worked as a teacher in Mumbai, reportedly died of COVID-19 on May 27.
According to reports, Sujata Mahapatra (47), a teacher of a well-known English Medium School in Mumbai, became seriously ill on May 20. Later, on the advice of the doctor, her swab samples were sent for test to the Mahatma Gandhi Mission (MGM) New Bombay Hospital and the test report received on May 22 confirmed that she was afflicted with COVID-19. Later, she was kept in the hospital quarantine.
As the Mumbai Municipal administration declared the flat in which she lived and its nearby area as containment zone, neither the neighbours of Sujata nor her relatives could not meet her 13-year-old daughter, who was left to fend for herself.
All this while, Sujata’s husband Prashant, an engineer, was in Cuttack to look after his seriously ill mother Basanti and he could not proceed to Mumbai due to the lockdown. He desperately contacted his relatives and senior IAS officer Pradipta Mahapatra, following whose intervention Sujata was shifted to the Apollo Hospitals in Mumbai on May 25.
After the Centre announced the resumption of domestic flights, Prashant flew to Mumbai on May 26. However, soon after his arrival, he was kept in institutional quarantine. He was allowed to go home a day later after his swab samples were found to be negative. But by that time, his wife had already died.
Although Prashant later went to the Apollo Hospitals, he was not allowed to see his wife. As proof, the hospital authorities showed him her photo with the body wrapped in a polythene cover.
