E-Paper
Gzb: Private lab’s licence suspended for failing to inform district admin about Covid-19 patient
Ghaziabad:
Ghaziabad:
The licence of a private laboratory, which allegedly failed to inform the district surveillance officer about the status of a Covid-19 positive patient, has been suspended, health department officials said on Friday.
“According to norms, the private lab was supposed to send a report to the Indian Council of Medical Research and also the district surveillance officer so that contact tracing of the Covid-19 positive patient could be initiated. However, it has been over 10 days since we received no report of the patient who works at an industrial unit in Sahibabad. So, a show cause notice has been sent to the lab and legal action will also be taken against the patient for hiding his health condition,” said Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer (CMO).
Gupta said that after the ‘missing’ patient, who was found positive for Sars-CoV-2 on May 7, came to light, the matter was referred to the police.
“The police took up surveillance and the patient was traced in his house. He was admitted to the ESI Hospital in Sahibabad on Thursday. Our teams are now trying to trace his contacts and also areas where the patient might have visited ever since he was tested positive,” the CMO added.
In another case, the officials said that a 20-year-old mentally challenged woman who was supposed to be admitted to women’s shelter home was inadvertently taken to a quarantine facility and admitted there.
“The woman was brought by an ambulance and lodged at the quarantine facility at Dasna. She has been there for about 20-22 days, but not able to tell the whereabouts of her family. We have now contacted the district social welfare department so that she can be sent to the shelter home. Also, some mandatory tests have to be taken up before she can be moved to the shelter home,” Gupta said.
Vikas Chandra, district probation officer whom the matter has been referred to by the health department, said that he has contacted a shelter home in Noida.
“The shelter home is for women who are mentally retarded. Before the woman is transferred to the shelter home, she needs to undergo four tests – HIV, pregnancy, tuberculosis and Covid-19. Once these tests turn negative, the woman will be taken there on orders issued by a magistrate. We are coordinating with Noida officials in this regard,” Chandra said.
On Friday, the Ghaziabad reported six new Covid-19 cases, taking the tally of positive patients to 208 in the district.
“We now have 208 positive cases, of which 168 have been discharged so far. Overall, we have 38 active cases. Of the six cases on Friday, one each is from Khoda, Indirapuram, Sanjay Nagar, Muradnagar, Bhopra and from a locality near NH-9 (near ABES IT College),” CMO Gupta said.
