The Election Commission of India may have mandated RT-PCR test for entry to counting centres only for those without two doses of vaccination, but Dharmapuri district administration has made mandatory RT-PCR tests for all polling personnel, agents of candidates and the media ignoring the two dose vaccination caveat of the Election Commission.
The move, according to the administration a precautionary exercise, however is seen to burden the testing facilities that are grappling with the rising number of cases and the accompanying demand for testing of those with severe symptoms.
For instance, at a testing camp in Krishnagiri district, a government doctor showed the ECI guideline and indicated how universal testing for the counting day even of those with two dose vaccination was burdening the labs. There are persons with symptoms waiting for results, and this had appeared to overburden the technicians, the labs and the doctors too, said the medical source.
However, Krishnagiri administration had stuck to the guideline and made the RT-PCR testing mandatory only for those who had not completed their vaccination. In the special testing camp in Hosur, an approximate of 244 samples were collected as of Thursday evening. This included 226 agents and the remaining of that polling staff.
But, Dharmapuri district administration had insisted on testing all of counting staff, some of who were vaccinated during Phase II as part of the coverage of government staff. Similarly, it was made mandatory for the media, too, irrespective of their vaccination status.
The Hindu contacted Dharmapuri Sub-Collector M. Prathap on the dissonance with the ECI guideline that exempted those vaccinated with two doses from RT-PCR.“We have seen cases of infection even among those vaccinated. t is for everybody’s safety,” said Mr. Prathap.
