Alot: An instance of the apathy and callous attitude of health department towards the locals came to fore recently as it failed to initiate thermal screening and collection of samples from a containment area.
A 64-year-old woman, resident of Kumharpura, ward number 10 was recently tested positive for COVID-19. Her samples was collected on July 10 and sent to Medical College, Ratlam and her reports arrived a few days later on July 14.
However, without caring two hoots about the safety of the locals in general and the neighbours of the woman in particular the administration and health department did not take a call for days together. Only on Wednesday did a team finally reached Kumharpura and declared it a containment area.
Patwari Dev Chauhan said that that the contact and travel history of woman has been collected. The woman’s daughter, a resident of Sailana, has recently visited her. Her son had also visited Jaora to meet her and other kin.
The woman’s husband informed that she had mild fever, after which they went to a government hospital where her sample was collected.
SDM Chandra Singh Solanki said that the woman has been sent to the isolation ward in Medical College. The area has been sanitized. All the residents of the locality have been screened. Giving justification for the apathetic attitude of the health department he claimed that it took time for making arrangements so declaring the area as a containment zone got delayed.
The level callousness of health department is such that even the block medical officer had no idea that the woman is infected. While nodal officer Dr Abdul Kadir said that he has recently received the news of the infection. Meanwhile as the administration got late in responding to the developments the woman’s husband kept interacting with others especially for purchasing daily need like milk.
