GHMC’s proactive role seems to have ended when it comes to enforcing COVID-19 containment, though the disease is spreading its tentacles across the city without any let-up.
Lack of information about patients is the reason in several cases, while staff shortage and reluctance of field workers to enter the premises of COVID-19 patients too contribute to the problem.
In several instances of home isolation, neither the GHMC staff nor ASHA workers are visiting to issue necessary instructions. Sanitisation of the premises too is not being taken up in many cases. Contact tracing is practically non-existent.
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“We had three COVID-19 cases in our apartment complex from two different households. I was informed by the infected persons themselves, who said they had been recommended home isolation. When I called the GHMC official concerned for sanitisation of the complex, she said the workers will not enter the premises. We are also clueless about precautions to be taken by other residents,” shared Prof. Surender Adki, president of a resident welfare association in Azamabad.
He says no health or GHMC worker has visited their complex to issue containment instructions, leaving the 180 residents jittery about using lifts and other public amenities in the premises.
This is in stark contrast with the initial enthusiasm displayed by authorities in restraining the patients and their family members to their homes. Containment zones would be declared around every such home, and daily needs of residents would be taken care of by the joint efforts of the police and GHMC officials.
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Later on, containment was being restricted to a single household if only one or two cases surfaced. In case of more patients, containment clusters were being demarcated. A sticker would be pasted on the door of the COVID-19 patient’s house, to forewarn any entrant.
The stickers are gone now, and there is no way anybody can know which house has patients. Officials are not making the customary visits twice a day to ensure that the members are adhering to isolation norms. Practically no assistance is being offered even when they make one perfunctory visit.
“We are facing acute staff shortage, as several of us have tested positive. Since the disease incidence too has grown, our workers are reluctant to enter the premises,” a GHMC official informed.
He also said they are not getting details of all cases from the health department. After the government has opened up private labs for testing, not all results are being collated, and patients too are not informing the officials.
“I was diagnosed through a chest scan in a private hospital, and the doctor advised me home isolation. I didn’t even inform the apartment association, for the fear of stigma. Nobody knows about my positive status till date,” informed Sarathi (name changed), a patient.
Eventually, several of his family members, who stay elsewhere, too tested positive, the details of which were not shared with the health authorities.