ROURKELA: Amid allegations of insufficient testing, the Sundargarh administration has come out in defence of its steps to manage the Covid-19 situation in the district.
Three days back, a controversy had erupted after members of Rourkela Bar Association (RBA) accused the city administration of not testing some court staff and lawyers who had come in contact with six infected under-trial prisoners (UTPs) of the special jail here. The UTPs had tested positive for coronavirus on June 6.
RBA president Ramesh Chandra Bal had said besides the Judicial Magistrate, the court sub-inspector and many support staff as well as three lawyers had directly handled the records of the UTPs. Ideally, their swab samples should have been sent for testing on priority basis as part of the contact tracing process.
Incidentally, since the infected UTPs hailed from Rourkela’s Covid-19 hotbed, a Judicial Magistrate, on June 9, had requested the city administration to test some staff. Bal said facing criticism, the administration hurriedly took the Judicial Magistrate and another person for testing on June 11. “If a magistrate has to struggle to get tested, one can imagine the plight of the common man,” he said.
Dismissing the allegation as baseless, Rourkela ADM Aboli Sunil Naravane said testing of coronavirus patients’ contacts should be done after at least five days for effective result. All identified members of the court were tested on the sixth day and the results were negative.
The ADM said 200 swab samples are being tested daily. Over the last 45 days, above 10,000 samples from across Sundargarh district have been tested including more than 7,000 samples from areas under Rourkela city jurisdiction. Naravane pointed out that 88 per cent of total positive cases have recovered as they were asymptomatic and it was possible due to extensive testing.
Naravane said as per recent guidelines, symptomatic cases, vulnerable people and those in direct contact with positive cases are being tested.