A youth with no symptoms of Covid-19 had to spend a night at the isolation ward of the Raiganj Government Medical College and Hospital because of rumours that he had returned home from Delhi with possible infection.

Sanaul Haque, a resident of Gorahar village near Itahar in North Dinajpur, actually works at a restaurant in North 24-Parganas. He reached home on Tuesday morning when rumours about his illness started spreading.

“Villager said Haque had worked at a construction site in Delhi and returned home with symptoms of coronavirus. There were even rumours that his symptoms were detected upon his arrival by train at Howrah station and he had fled. It was surprising that none crosschecked with his family whether he stayed in Delhi at all,” said a source in the district health department.

As the day rolled, a group of villagers approached Haque’s family and wanted him to be examined at the Raiganj Government Medical College and Hospital.

“I said I am fit and fine and don’t have any symptoms. But they insisted on my hospitalisation,” Haque said.

But the villagers were not convinced and felt Haque was “concealing” his infection. They mobilised rural health workers and called up the local panchayat member and the pradhan, asking them to persuade Haque for a check-up. An ambulance soon arrived at Haque’s doorstep.

But he soon disappeared from Gorahar.

“I was fed up with the consistent pressure. In the afternoon, I left home for a village in Bihar to attend the wedding of a relative,” the youth said.

The “panicked” villagers informed police that Haque had fled. The police reached his home and collected details.

“While I was in Bihar, a relative called me up and narrated the situation. I immediately started for my home and reached in the evening,” said Haque, who is in his early twenties.

The police spent no time and took the youth to the Raiganj medical college and hospital. Doctors examined Haque and kept him under observation in the isolation ward set up for suspected coronavirus patients.

On Wednesday morning, doctors confirmed that he was in good health and had no symptoms of Covid-19.

“The youth who had been brought from Itahar block on Tuesday night was released from the isolation ward on Wednesday,” North Dinajpur district magistrate Arvind Mina said.

Haque said: “This is what a rumour can do to a person. For no reason, I had to spend the night in isolation.”