Patna: Three women in Bihar were declared COVID-19 positive and put into an isolation centre without tests being conducted on them. The health department has ordered an investigation.
As per the report, the health department had organised a camp in the Gogari block of Khagaria, an eastern Bihar district some 160km from Patna, on June 30 to collect swab samples of villagers for testing after Covid-19 cases were reported in the area.
Local health workers and Accredited Social health Activists (ASHA) were given the responsibility to bring the local villagers to the health camp. One of the health workers, Babita Kumari later brought three women from a local village for their sample collection.
Reports said the women were terrified by the sight of watching health officials push tubes in the noses of people to collect samples that they fled the camp midway and returned home.
The poor women were hugely surprised when a team of health workers reached their homes four days later and forcibly put them into a local isolation centre along with the Covid-19 patients, saying they had tested positive for Covid-19.
Angry family members registered complaints and later reported the matter to the local district magistrate who ordered the health authorities for their sample collection for a test. The test reports found none of the three women had any corona symptoms, prompting the authorities to order an investigation.
“This is very serious on the part of the health team. We have asked the local civil surgeon to inquire into the matter and submit the report soon,” Khagaria district magistrate Alok Ranjan Ghosh told the media on Thursday.
Although the women tested negative for Covid, the development has caused survival problems before them. Reports said the poor women would eke out their livelihood by selling food on a hand cart in the local market but after being described as “Covid-19 positive” and admitted to the isolation centre by the health department, local villagers have stopped visiting their shops fearing they could be infected.
According to the latest report of the health department, Coronavirus has claimed over 100 lives and infected 13,978 people in Bihar so far. The overall situation is such that around 20 district towns, including Patna which is the capital of Bihar state, have enforced fresh lockdowns ranging from three to seven days to check the spread of the deadly virus.
