Ishtiyaq Ahmed
Srinagar, April 25: On April 9, this Srinagar family comprising of five members was taken by a surprise as all of them were tested positive for the Covid-19 pandemic without any travel history or coming into direct contact to any positive patient.
In quarantine since then, they had something to cheer up today as two siblings tested negative but three other family members including father, mother and son retested positive.
This happened after all the five members of the family were under quarantine in a SKIMS soura hospital since April 9. “We were shocked to see the results, as my two sisters tested negative but my parents and I tested positive again. Luck seems not to be favouring us even in the fasting month of Ramdhan,” Imtiyaz Ahmed (name changed) told news agency KINS.
“We are still clueless as to how we caught the virus. I and my parent don’t want to stay in quarantine again. But there is no other option,” he said. “Almighty is definitely annoyed with us. We are being punished through this virus.”
The family members, father, son, two daughters and their mother were tested positive on April 9. They belong to Eidgah area of Srinagar’s old town.
“We are into the art of Khatamband ( a wood art) used to craft unique designs on a special kind of wood used for ceiling in residential houses, hotels, government offices and also in houseboats in Kashmir,” Imtiyaz had told KINS.
He had said that somehow he along with his father were earning to feed their three other family members and life was smooth. “We are really walking down the memory lane as to how we got infected. We never travelled, neither came in contact with any positive patient,” he had said.
When the administration declared entire Eidgah as Red Zone after 10-year-old boy tested positive, many samples around the area were taken including this ill-fated family of five. “The results were shocking as all of them were positive,” he said.
All the five family members were admitted in the quarantine center and that they had no symptoms of Covid-19. “All of us are still asymptomatic. None of us have any symptom. We are shocked to see our test results even after spending two weeks in quarantine,” said Imtiyaz.
“Many questions haunt us. What if we tested positive in the next test also.This virus seems to be strange. We have neither cough nor cold and yet we test positive,” the young boy said.(KINS)
