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17 suspected Covid patients off the radar, Kushinagar admn launches manhunt
Lab staff destroyed samples while health workers mentioned wrong addresses of these suspected patients, finds probe
LUCKNOW The administration in east UP’s Kushinagar district launched a manhunt to trace 17 suspected Covid patients, who were missing after their samples tested positive for Covid-19 in the RT-PCR test conducted at the government laboratory.
Eleven employees, including laboratory staff, members of the village surveillance committee and staff posted at healthcare centres were suspended for dereliction of duty, said the district health department officer.
On Saturday, samples of 20 people of Ramkola, Hata and Padrauna blocks in the district tested positive in the laboratory. Teams were deputed to trace these people for treatment, contact tracing and test others in the village, said Dr Suresh Pataria, chief medical officer (CMO), Kushinagar.
While the cell phones of 17 people were found switched off, samples of three had been collected for re-test at the laboratory at Baba Raghav Das Medical College, Gorakhpur.
During probe, it was found that the health workers, who collected the samples, had mentioned wrong addresses of the suspected positive cases. The teams sent by the district administration could not trace these suspected Covid patients on the addresses mentioned in health department records.
Besides, the laboratory staff destroyed the samples of the 17 people, whereas it’s mandatory for the lab to store samples of positive cases. “There has been negligence in duty on part of members of the surveillance committee as well as the staff posted at the health centres in the three blocks,” he added.
The district health department sent a report to the state health and family welfare department over the issue recommending strict action against the 11 employees, said the CMO.
The health and family welfare department officer was monitoring the issue and the CMO had been directed to submit a report on the issue.
In the last 24 hours, UP reported 23 fresh Covid cases while one person succumbed to the infection. There were 570 active cases in the state, of which 352 were in home isolation. “In the last 24 hours, 43 people have recovered, taking the total recovered data to 16,85,449. Even after decline in Covid cases, the surveillance teams are visiting villages and localities to survey households, said Amit Mohan Prasad, additional chief secretary, health and family welfare.
7 fresh cases in Gkp village, alert sounded
Seven fresh Covid cases were detected in Balua village in Campeerganj area of Gorakhpur district on Monday. Five of these were members of a family, including children in the 1-2 years age group.
CMO (Gorakhpur) Dr Sudhakar Pandey said an alert had been sounded in the area and teams were dispatched for contact tracing. The samples of these people were collected at Dhani community health centre in Maharajaganj district. “We are in contact with the Maharajganj district health department to collect the details of the positive people,” he said.
The district health department will gather information on the travel history of these Covid patients and their samples will be sent to the BRD Medical College, Gorakhpur for retest in the laboratory.
Medical officer of Dhani CHC, Dr Neeraj Singh said the samples of 314 people were collected for RT-PCR and antigen test and seven of these tested positive for Covid. These people are under surveillance. Health teams have distributed medical kits and a contact tracing drive has been launched in villages of Gorakhpur- Maharajganj districts, he added.
