Anantnag: In an example of blatant negligence, authorities in Pulwama allowed all inmates to go home from the quarantine centre despite two samples for COVID-19 testing were missing.
A Kachipora Pulwama youth returned from Pune on May 24. He was kept in a quarantine centre along with several people at Islamic University of Science and Technology Awantipora for 11 days.
“I was then told my test is negative and was allowed to go home like others. I was with my family members for three days before officials told him I have to come again for sampling as two samples had gone missing. Then my sample was collected which tested positive,” he told news agency Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS).
He said all his eight family members have got infected. One-year-old baby has also been infected. “This is all because of negligence of the authorities who allowed everyone to go home from quarantine centre despite two samples were missing.
Among two people whose samples were missing, one was tested positive. We caught the infection there because we were using one washroom and many were put up in one room,” he claimed.
CMO Pulwama Dr Haseena when contacted said that she has no information in this regard. “I don’t have any information. I will confirm it from my BMO then I can comment on it,” she told KINS.
BMO Pampore said he will seek details from concerned medical officer.
“I will get the details then only make comments,” the BMO said.
This is not an isolated case; there are many incidents when COVID-19 positive cases were sent home, risking the lives of their families.
One of the cases of alleged negligence came to the fore in Baramulla when a patient was declared positive for novel coronavirus. However a day after he was allowed to go home by administration after testing “negative” for COVID-19 and was later told he is positive.
In another case, a 40-year-old man who was kept under official quarantine at Baramulla town was discharged after being declared negative for COVID-19. Then he was told by the administration to immediately return to the quarantine facility citing that his test has come positive for the same disease.
In another case a person from Handwara was discharged from a COVID-19 quarantine centre after declaring him negative for the disease. However, the officials rushed to put him in isolation after his test reports came positive for the deadly disease.
“These cases are typical examples of official negligence which has put lives of many others in the quarantine centre at risk in addition to the family members of these people,” opined a doctor on the condition of anonymity. (KINS)