Power and privilege seem to be at play in the Telangana Health department when it comes to testing of primary contacts of COVID-19 patients, as evident from mass testing of GHMC employees during the last two days.
While Health officials are refusing to test all the primary contacts as a rule, and prioritising only the symptomatic ones, no such restraint has been exercised in case of GHMC employees, where one positive case was declared on Monday.
Reliable sources from the corporation informed that a total of 46 employees of GHMC have been tested for COVID-19 on Tuesday and Wednesday. Of these, 22 were from the Mayor’s peshi and 24 from the Solid Waste Management (SWM) and Health wings. None of them are frontline workers exposed to higher risk, sources informed.
Another person from the Mayor’s peshi turned out positive during the tests, while the results of the SWM wing are yet to arrive.
As per details, the mass testing was done after a junior assistant from the SWM wing tested positive. Employees from Mayor’s wing claimed that the person had visited the peshi a couple of times, hence warranting the tests. Employees from the SWM wing, however, raised demand with the higher-ups about the need for the testing though without symptoms.
“We begged them, and declared that we would not come to office unless all of us are tested. Strings were pulled with the Health officials, several of whom are on deputation in GHMC, for our bidding to be carried out,” shared an employee on the condition of anonymity.
He said even primary contacts of the first infected person had great difficulty convincing the Health officials to test them. However, GHMC authorities have clarified there was no instruction issued from Commissioner D.S. Lokesh Kumar for testing of the employees.
Earlier, tests were conducted on Mayor Bonthu Ram Mohan too without symptoms, after he visited a café in Musheerabad where a waiter had previously tested positive. His result was negative, which he had displayed publicly on his Twitter account.
Hyderabad district health authorities denied knowledge of conducting tests on both GHMC employees and the Mayor without symptoms, and asserted that family contacts very close to patients, and those falling in high risk categories alone are being tested. Office and other contacts are not tested, unless they report with symptoms, they clarified.
