For pregnant women, an arduous journey to get Covid test done

Raj Kumar, a resident of Arthala near Mohan Nagar, had to take his eight-month pregnant wife in a cab to the sampling centre at IMS College, Dasna, despite Sanjay

Raj Kumar, a resident of Arthala near Mohan Nagar, had to take his eight-month pregnant wife in a cab to the sampling centre at IMS College, Dasna, despite Sanjay Nagar hospital being closer.

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The reason: Ghaziabad district’s only major sampling centre has been relocated to Dasna, which is on the city’s outskirts, spelling trouble for all pregnant women who have to get their sampling for Covid-19 done mandatorily.

The sampling centre till about a fortnight ago was operating out of Sanjay Nagar hospital. It was shifted out to Dasna after the Sanjay Nagar health hub was declared an L2 category dedicated Covid hospital last month.

“We had so far been consulting a private doctor in Sahibabad for her treatment. The doctor advised us to get a Covid-19 test done, so we came to the sampling centre at Dasna. It is very hard to travel in scorching heat and not at all possible if you do not hire a cab. It is about 16km away from my house. A number of pregnant women, I am told, can be spotted standing in queue for hours daily to get their sampling done, before delivery,” Kumar said.

“Although my wife has no symptoms but the doctor told us that a Covid test is mandatory before she delivers. We came here on Wednesday noon and waited for over an hour to get her sampling done. We found that about 15 other women were in queue with us. It is very difficult for women to come here in peak summer and get their tests done after a long wait,” he added.

Bijender Kumar, a native of Chappraula in nearby Gautam Budh Nagar, also came with his wife on a bike but the couple had to return soon.

“My wife initially stood in the queue, but when her turn came she was denied sampling. The staff at the sampling centre said that we are from Gautam Budh Nagar and we should get our sampling done there itself and not in Ghaziabad. We were surprised but had no option and returned home. My wife had symptoms of fever and cough,” he added.

However, when asked, not many knew that a sample testing facility for pregnant women had been started at Women’ Hospital which is in the same complex at MMG District Hospital.

“We started testing on May 21 and it was initially for one hour. Thereafter from June 2 , we initiated another round of sampling, which is now done from 8am to 7pm. . In all we have taken up 172 samples of pregnant women till date and four of them have tested positive so far,” said Dr Deepa Tyagi, chief medical superintendent of women’s hospital.

“We are not denying sampling to any pregnant women who come to us even from neighbouring districts, like Gautam Budh Nagar. In all we are carrying out 10-12 deliveries daily with all precautions assuming that every patient may be Covid-19 positive. Since March 22, we have done 780 deliveries and another 215 C-sections.We generally advise pregnant women in advanced stages of pregnancy to get their Covid-19 tests done in order to avoid any complications during deliveries,” she added.

The chief medical superintendent on Wednesday also said that she had opted to go in home isolation after she got exposed to at least three women at the hospital who tested positive on June 16.

The hospital complex is also being sanitized.

The district health department officials on the other hand confirmed that they have one sampling centre at Dasna and another 12 mobile vans, which take up sampling in different areas.

“It is possible that pregnant women do not have the required information that sampling can also be done at women’s hospital, which is in Ghaziabad city. So, they need not come to the sampling centre at Dasna,” said GK Mishra, district malaria officer.

In another move, the district malaria officer also de-sealed four highrises in Kaushambi about two days after they were sealed. The members of Kaushambi Apartments’ RWA (KARWA) said that the health department officials asked them to submit records of all patients.

“Initially they came to seal four towers on Monday. They de-sealed them on Wednesday . There have been two deaths and several positive casest. When we asked, they asked us to bring the record of patients otherwise they will not take up sealing in future. We told them that we do not have access to patient records and they must get it themselves even if the patients are in Delhi,” said VK Mittal, president of KARWA.

According to UP government’s latest directions, the residential towers are to be sealed for 14 days instead of 21 days directed earlier.

“The RWA gave us verbal information and did not provide us records. In case anyone objects to sealing then we might have got caught in legal issues. Since families of patients had tested negative and some families were not present in Kaushambi, we decided to de-seal the towers on Wednesday,” Mishra said.

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