HYDERABAD: A day after Health Minister Eatala Rajender tweeted a list of sample collection centres where people can get tested for COVID-19 for free, several centres reported high footfall and some even had to close by noon on Thursday.
As there are only limited tests that can be done in the golden 48 hours of testing, these collection centres have put a cap on the number of samples to be taken, owing to several patients returning home without getting tested.
"I have been coming to Sarojini Devi Hospital for the last three days. Initially, the testing had not started and the next two days I reached late. Now, they asked me to go to Koti or another centre," a COVID-19 suspected patient said.
In a similar incident, a resident of Kavadiguda, Praveen Kumar, shared how his neighbours were sent back from Nature Cure Hospital. "In my neighbourhood, one person tested positive, his maid and parents are the primary contacts. But when they went for testing, the staff said all the tokens were taken and asked them to come the next day. This is just unnecessary movement of primary contacts," Praveen said.
The Kondapur Area Hospital, on the other hand, ran out of testing kits. "They said there are no kits available. Including me, over 100 people waited in queue from 6 am. Are you guys really serious during this time of emergency? Your deeds show no seriousness," Akkangari Manohar, a netizen, tweeted.
Home isolation in Karimnagar
Medical and health authorities in Karimnagar have put in place a new system, wherein COVID-19 patients are kept in home isolation and under observation. District Medical and Health Officer Dr G Sujatha said that the department's staff would keep a tab on the patients' condition on a daily basis by contacting them regularly. The patients are given PPE kits, sanitisers, masks, waste disposal bags and medicines, apart from a prescribed immunity-booting diet, she said.