A migrant woman in the Indian state of Manipur, testing for COVID-19, was given only three minutes to say a final goodbye to her father, on Wednesday. When 22-year-old Anjali Hmangte’s father passed away due to a prolonged illness, she was under quarantine at an isolation centre, after returning from Chennai, where she worked.
Indian Twitter users are sharing “heart-wrenching” photos that showed how Hmangte had to wear a hazmat suit, as she kneeled near her father’s coffin and peeped in, at her home in Kangpokpi district. Neither her mother, nor relatives could go near and console her.
Reportedly, the woman had returned from Chennai in a Shramik train that ferries migrant workers across India, on May 25. She was sent to a quarantine center after another passenger she had travelled with tested positive for the virus. After permission from the authorities, Hmangte had attended her father's funeral wearing personal protective equipment (PPE).
Like many others , tweep @shubham_jain999 shared the photo with the caption: “Those final three minutes…. Anjali from Manipur was given just 3 precious minutes of her life, to meet her ailing father, who later succumbed to his long time illness. She had to wear a PPE kit, as she was being tested for Corona, to bid the last goodbye to her father.”
The doctors kept looking at their stopwatches and she was whisked away by health authorities as soon as the allotted three minutes were over.
“Heart-wrenching!” wrote tweep @avnindergrewal
And, Facebook user Aaron Jacob added: “Can’t imagine the pain, not being able to hug one’s own parent in such a situation. This virus has made human beings so helpless in many ways.”
There are 124 COVID-19 cases in Manipur, as per reports on Friday.
