SHILLONG: The US aid worker, Theodore Moallem, who allegedly attacked a senior general surgeon and several staff of the Civil Hospital here has tested negative for COVID-19.
Speaking to newsmen on Monday, the Director of Health Services (MI), Aman Warr, said that Moallem was put under home quarantine.
When asked if he has violated the protocols, Warr said that he had gone to Guwahati to pick up a person undergoing operation. This was the reason that he had gone directly to his home place, he added.
Meanwhile, the director of health services said that Moallem’s house owner informed the health authorities about him as it was pertinent for him to be tested.
The health officials along with the police had gone to pick him from his residence at Lawjnriew Nongthymmai on Saturday, Warr added. “The American aid worker was not cooperating when he was brought to the Civil Hospital. A scuffle between him and the doctors and nursing staff also took place,” Warr said. Sources said that neither the Health department nor the senior surgeon filed any complaint with the police, and hence, no case was registered.
Sources informed that Moallem went to Guwahati on May 26 and arrived back on June 6. He went to his residence in Lawjynriew, but complained of chest pain and high blood pressure following which the 108 emergency services was called. Informing that the American aid worker was shifted to NEIGRHIMS after he complained of chest pain and breathlessness owing to prevailing cardiac problem, Warr said that he (Moallem) had cooperated with the health authorities to follow the prescribed procedures after they explained about the situation. “We have put him under home quarantine after he tested negative,” the director of health services, Warr, said.
The senior general surgeon of the hospital, Isaac Syiem, suffered fractures making him unable to work for now after he was attacked by Moallem, while allegedly resisting medication on Saturday.
