Rising toll in New York sparks panic in Hoshiarpur village

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Hoshiarpur, April 1

The rising death toll in New York because of Covid has made 250 families of the district’s Gilzian village jittery. The families are logging onto news portals or making frantic calls to their children, siblings or cousins settled in the US, asking about their well-being.

The toll has touched the 1,100 mark in New York, while 42,000 people have tested positive so far.

Village sarpanch Gurdeep Singh, whose two sons and daughter are in New York, said: “About 2,000 to 2,500 persons from Gilzian village are settled in New York. By the grace of God, all of them are safe. But they are facing difficulty on the work front. They are not going to work because of the lockdown there. As long as they are safe, we have nothing to worry about.”

A few days ago, a group of villagers visited Congress MLA Sangat Singh Gilzian’s residence in the village to know about the situation in New York.

Gilzian, who hails from the village, and his brother Joginder Singh went to New York to attend the wedding of their niece. Gilzian returned on March 19, while his brother was back a day later. But the airport authorities put him under quarantine in Delhi because by then restrictions on the movement were imposed. He will return to the village after April 3.

“Since everyone was curious to know about the scenario in New York, all went to Sangat Singh’s residence. We asked him several questions while standing four ft away. None of us had tea at his place,” the sarpanch said.

Former sarpanch Ranjit Kaur said, “At least 80 of my relatives are settled in the US. I call them up every day. All of them are safe. The US government was late in imposing the lockdown.”