Faulty COVID-19 reports in Odisha raise a stink, leave people traumatised and victimised
CUTTACK: Even as Odisha continues to evade ramping up Covid tests despite a persistently high positivity rate of over 10 per cent, faulty tests and resultant victimisation of the non-infected people, who are branded as infected and put in hospitals, is making the situation worse in the State.
A 10-year-old girl of Badamba town has been left battling with severe anxiety and depression after being put in a Covid hospital for 10 days despite not having tested positive for the virus. Her experience in the stressful atmosphere of the hospital notwithstanding, she has been shunned by her friends and others after her return home. She has now begun showing visible signs of stress and mental agony, her parents said.
According to the girl’s father Krushna Chandra Singh, an employee of a nationalized bank in the town, he was admitted to KIIMS Covid Hospital after testing positive on July 10. The health officials then collected swab samples from his contacts including his wife, daughter, neighbourers, relatives and other staff of the bank on July 14.
While all other swabs were tested negative, his wife on night of July 16 was informed by the local Maniabandh CHC that their daughter had tested positive. The child was shifted to the SUM Covid hospital the same night.
Singh was discharged from the hospital on July 21 and his daughter on July 25. After undergoing home isolation for 14 days, Singh suspecting foul play in his daughter’s test collected a copy of the report and was dumbfounded to find her sample had tested negative.
“I cannot understand how and why my daughter was admitted to Covid hospital even though she had tested negative for the virus. She has suffered serious trauma on being kept in hospital all alone without parents or family by her side. Even after her discharge, her friends are keeping away from her. Who will be held responsible for my daughter’s mental agony,” questioned Singh and demanded a probe into the matter.
The local Maniabandha CHC authorities, however, stated that they had taken step after receiving the ICMR specimen referral form wherein the girl was shown as positive. This is not an isolated case. A similar case too has occurred at Bidanasi under Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC). Santoshi Das, a woman from the locality, has alleged that she has been provided with a discharge certificate from a Covid care centre stating she had tested positive for Covid-19 even though she has not yet undergone any test.
According to her, she had attended her 6-year-old son who tested positive for the virus on July 23 and was shifted to Bidyadharpur covid care Centre. After staying for eight days, they were discharged on July 30 with two separate discharge certificates stating both to be infected.
“As the discharge certificate wrongly certified that she had tested Covid positive, our family has been facing stigma and leading an almost ostracised life now. No one is turning up to buy milk from our house,” said her milkman husband Pradip Das.