'Jaake mar jao': COVID Command Centre employee tell patients, audio goes viral

India is reeling under the second wave of COVID-19 as record number of cases continue to be reported in several cities.

At a time like this, we require compassion from everyone around us. Recently, a COVID patient was told to ‘go and die’ by an employee of the Integrated COVID Command Centre of Uttar Pradesh.

The audio clip of the conversation has now gone viral. The patient, Santosh Singh who is also the son of former chief of the BJP’s Lucknow city unit Manohar Singh, has written to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath complaining about the employee's behaviour.

"I wrote a letter to the UP Chief Minister regarding the use of unparliamentary language by the helpline staff on Thursday. As of now, four members of our family are in isolation (after testing positive for COVID-19),” Santosh was quoted as saying by a leading news agency.

Santosh in his message conveyed that his family has been home isolation ever since they positive for COVID-19 on April 12.

"On April 15, at 8.14 am, a phone call came from the command centre. A woman asked whether we had downloaded the home isolation app and filled the required details," Santosh said.

Singh said that when he told the woman that they haven’t been contacted by any doctor, he was  talked to in a rather inhuman manner. 

“When he informed the woman that no one had told his family to do so and that no doctor contacted them, the woman got angry and said, "Jaakar mar jaao. (Go and die). After this, the call was disconnected,” Singh said.

"This type of language is used with patients. At this point of time, every person is in fear and such things are spoken to the patients. There is no humanity left in the workers, nor there is any fear,” he added.