BHUBANESWAR: Amid a spike in coronavirus cases, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC)’s failure to inform patients about their test results and address the issues of people in home isolation is worsening the city’s COVID management. Patients are getting their test report after 6-7 days in most cases, apart from the anxiety.
An employee working in a State Government Directorate said though he got his RT-PCR test done on September 13 but no one from the BMC informed him about his test report till September 18. “It was only when I used my source that I came to know on September 19 that I have tested positive,” he said.
The Covid patient also alleged that despite of having comorbidities, none from the civic body inquired about his health. “As I am diabetic, my brother later contacted the civic body and one of my relatives from Cuttack intervened after which I was shifted to a private hospital,” he said. He said his sons and wife are in isolation after he tested positive. However, they have also not received any call from the civic body.
Besides, some Covid patients in home isolation and paid isolation expressed disappointment over the civic body’s response.With around 70 per cent patients being allowed home isolation, experts said making them aware about handing of the bio-medical waste is also essential which otherwise would make sanitation workers vulnerable to infection. This, however, also remains an area of concern in the city.
Bizarre as it may sound, family members of deceased Covid patients on certain occasions have received calls from the civic body regarding health condition of the patient even after 10 days of death. In one case, kin of a retired doctor with a paramilitary force were enquired about his health by the BMC a good 10 days after he passed away. Later, they received more calls from BMC about condition of the ‘patient’ in home isolation.
As such lapses raise the question on the management of the COVID situation in the Capital, the BMC officials remained inaccessible for their view on these matters.
Meanwhile, the daily spike of COVID cases, which continues to be over 300 in the city, remains another cause of worry.
345 cases in Capital
As many as 345 more persons were tested positive in the State Capital in the last 24 hours, pushing city’s Covid count to 19,243. Seven employees of a Central Government hospital were among the 244 patients who were transmitted the virus locally on the day. The Covid death toll in the city also increased to 69 with one more fatality. BMC officials, however, said the active cases in the city came down to 3,806 as 412 more individuals infected with the virus recovered on the day. The total cases of recovery has also remained more than 15,300, they said.