Expressing concern over Health Department officials testing positive for COVID-19, MLA for Mangaluru U.T. Khader said on Friday that the district administration should ensure that testing of samples does not stop.
Speaking to reporters, he said a senior official of the Health Department and a staff member of the Viral Research and Diagnostic Laboratory of Wenlock Hospital were among those who have tested positive. An official holding the charge of senior health officer is reportedly unwell. “I find fewer officers on the field,” he said, pointing out that there was too much burden on the two teams involved in the collection of throat swabs in the city.
Asking people not to be frightened if they test positive, Mr. Khader said most of them would recover after getting treatment in 15 days at the hospital. He asked the State government to arrange isolation facilities for asymptomatic positive persons who do not have space in their homes to follow home isolation.
Mr. Khader also asked the district administration to identify space for cremating the dead. Appreciating the work of an eight-member team of trained volunteers in cremating bodies, he said such teams should be available in other districts too.
He also said the random sampling being done in Ullal had helped people understand the magnitude of the spread of COVID-19 and take preventive steps. The MLA also said the district administration should make alternative arrangements to ambulances at the ward level for quick shifting of symptomatic persons to hospitals.
Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner Sindhu B Rupesh told The Hindu that sample testing at the VRDL had not been stopped and would continue.
