A hospital in Dubai has waived the Rs 1.52 crore hospital bill of a labourer from Telangana, who was treated there after testing positive for the coronavirus. Odnala Rajesh, who was under treatment at the Dubai Hospital for 80 days, reached Hyderabad in the early hours of Wednesday and left for his village in Jagtial district.
The 42-year-old was admitted to Dubai Hospital on April 23 and had tested COVID-19 positive. He recovered after 80 days of treatment and the hospital handed him a bill of 7,62,555 Arab Emirate Dirham (Rs 1.52 crore).
Gundelli Narasimha, president of the Gulf Workers' Protection Society in Dubai, who took the worker to the hospital and was visiting him regularly, brought the matter to the attention of Sumanth Reddy, an Indian Consulate volunteer in Dubai.
Reddy and Ashok Kotecha from the BAPS Swaminarayan Trust requested Harjeet Singh, Consul (Labour) of Indian Consulate in Dubai, to help the poor worker.
Harjeet Singh wrote a letter to the Dubai Hospital management, requesting them to waive the bill on humanitarian grounds. They responded positively and waived the bill.
Dubai Hospital is a multi-specialty hospital and is a part of the Dubai Department of Health and Medical Services.
Ashok Kotecha provided a free flight ticket to Rajesh and his escort Devara Kankaiah and paid Rs 10,000 for pocket expenses. They reached Hyderabad by an Air India Express flight.
Rajesh has been sent to 14-day home quarantine.
Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 cases in Telangana crossed 39,000 with 1,597 new cases on Wednesday, officials said. The state also recorded 11 fresh fatalities, taking the death toll to 386. The total number of recoveries so far stands at 25,999 while the number of active cases stands at 12,958.
The state, which has come under criticism from different quarters, has ramped up testing. As many as 13,642 samples in a 24-hour period ending on Wednesday, taking the cumulative number of tests up to 2,08,666.