Deryck Jaisingh, who died on Monday from the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), made numerous attempts to contact the COVID-19 hotline to report the severity of his symptoms but never got any response until 11 days later, when his condition had significantly worsened.

According to Jaisingh’s sister, Tiffany Newton, the businessman/miner developed severe COVID-19 symptoms on March 21st. “He had coughing, head-ache, stomach pains and wasn’t breathing properly,” she noted, before adding that those symptoms were so severe that he could no longer work and although his condition seemed serious enough, it worsened as the days went by.

Newton further noted that his family suspected that he might have the dreaded respiratory disease as one of his friends had informed him that he had tested positive for COVID-19. As a result, when Jaisingh fell ill, his wife isolated him to protect their child and they tried calling the COVID-19 hotline but were unsuccessful.