‘It was like being jailed’: Retired UN official narrates nightmare of being packed off to Covid care centre in Delhi's Chhatarpur

Pankaj Gupta tested positive for Covid on January 1. He was perturbed a bit, but how was he to know that was the least of his travails? Two days after the test, the 69-year-old resident of Greater Kailash I received a call from the district magistrate’s office and was hauled off to a Covid care centre in Chhatarpur, ostensibly for a few tests. On reaching the centre, Gupta — who was asymptomatic by then — was told that he would have to stay at the centre for at least 10 days.