HYDERABAD: Over 5,600 COVID-19 patients are under home quarantine but many of them are not receiving even the basic medication from the government.
The first set of home isolation patients, who stayed in Gandhi Hospital for at least four to five days and were then discharged, received medicines for a week.
These medicine kits included vitamin C, zinc and paracetamol for fever, which are basic treatment protocol and immunity boosters as no vaccine has been found so far to treat COVID-19.
Now, as more and more positive cases are piling up for ‘telemedicine’ treatment, the last-mile delivery of medicines has stopped.
These new cases are neither being admitted even for a single day to any hospital nor getting support in terms of medicine.
As per the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), the medical officer along with Asha workers and ANMs, must visit the patient, prescribe medicine on a daily basis for a 14-day period. However, it is not happening at many places.
“My mother tested positive on June 24 and since then no one has given us any medication. Since we had a doctor in the family, we got some paracetamol and other flu medicines. However, the call centre and the doctors who called us promised that the medicines will be sent, but they never did,” said a resident of Ram Nagar.
The call centre is now asking patients to drink warm water, warm milk with turmeric and other immunity-boosting food.
“They, in fact, gave me a number which doesn’t work,” said the patient’s son.
In another case, the patient was told that an Asha worker would come, but she did not turn up even a week after the patient tested positive.
Another patient from Padma Rao Nagar also faced a similar situation and his family, who are the primary contacts, were forced to meet a family doctor, exposing multiple others to the virus.
Shortage of Asha workers
The Express had earlier reported how the shortage of Asha workers will burden the system as there are just 3,500-odd Asha workers for over 5,600 patients and counting.
“We have a system in place, and every patient visit has to be updated. However, some areas are seeing large number of cases, leading to the delay,” said an official from DMHO.