The son of a coronovirus death victim, who along with his family has been staying at home quarantine in Dhaka’s Mirpur, has posted a Facebook status narrating the difficulties his family faced prior to his father’s death.

Iqbal Mahmud, an employee of a private bank, told Prothom Alo on Sunday that he had posted the status as rumours were being spread over his father’s death.

“I’ve never thought that I’ll have to write about my father’s death this way. Seeing some media reports, I’m forced to take the pen to share the truth about my father’s death,” Iqbal’s Facebook status reads.

“My father fell sick on 16 March and we took him to a Kalyanpur hospital that day. One of the physicians there recommended us to test him for COVID-19,” he wrote.

“We contacted the IEDCR that night but failed. After one and a half hours, we got them and they informed us not to panic and consider my father’s breathing problem as normal. They also assured us not to worry as my father had no travel history neither he had contact with any overseas returnees. They said, coronavirus has not yet spread in community level in Bangladesh. I told them that he goes to mosques to say his prayers [in jamaat],” Iqbal added.

His post also reads, “Around 10:00pm that night, we went to a specialist physician in a Shyamoli hospital. The physician suggested my father took pneumonia treatment at home. On 17 March, we went to the emergency department of the Shyamoli hospital again [as my father’s condition deteriorated]. The hospital authorities told us my father needed ICU (intensive care unit) support. We rushed him to the Care Hospital’s ICU as the Shyamoli hospital had no ICU seat vacant. About 15 minutes after admitting my father, Care Hospital told us that they can’t keep this patient.”

“As children we have failed to ensure proper treatment for our father and even we couldn’t attend his Janaza. What can be more painful for a son? Having all agony, we have been staying at home complying with the government’s rules. Some of the [Facebook] pages and frontline media are disseminating misinformation that the husband of one of our sisters visited us after coming from abroad. That is a blatant lie. Our elder sister and her husband live in Chattogram. Both of them are teachers at two separate government colleges there. Another has been living in Japan. My elder sister and her husband visited us on 19 March (the day when my father was taken to ICU in a hospital). They are also maintaining the home quarantine rules.”

“Please do not circulate any false report during this bad time of our family. Till now, every member of our family is doing well. None of them have any coronavirus symptom. Meanwhile, my younger brother and our driver haven been tested negative for COVID-19. Please pray for us.”