Returnees sitting in close proximity to each other inside the bus while being taken for COVID-19 testing on July 27 in Dimapur. (Photo by Special Arrangement)
Morung Express News
Dimapur | August 4
In what could be procedural lapse, returnees in some of the Quarantine Centres (QC) in Dimapur have been reportedly re-tested as their first swab samples have been ‘misplaced’.
One of the returnees, on the condition of anonymity, told The Morung Express that while it had been more than a week since their first test was conducted, she was yet to receive her report.
Some of the returnees who had been tested along with her reportedly received their results on August 3.
On the morning of August 4, she was informed that her sample which was sent to NHAK in Kohima had been ‘misplaced’ and a new test was required.
Expressing apprehension over the entire procedure, the returnee said, “The first time we went for tests at the CMO Office, 31 of us were cramped into one bus. Two of us even had to stand on our way back because the bus was packed with returnees. Now that I have to go for test again, I am worried how they are going to facilitate that.”
It may be mentioned here that other returnees too had posed similar concerns earlier.
On July 28, a day after being tested, one of the returnees took to Twitter to show how 31 of them from different QCs were accommodated into one bus for testing at CMO’s office.
“We returned on July 17 but our test was conducted after 10 days in isolation, and 31 of us from different centres were fitted into one bus. On top of that, the partition between the driver and the passengers was made with a cardboard and some old plastic covering,” she said.
“After weeks of isolation, clubbing so many people into one bus defeated the whole purpose,” she shared with this newspaper.
The returnee also highlighted that though she returned from Ahmedabad, she was allegedly asked to enter her point of origin as Guwahati. “Ahmedabad is a red zone and I don’t understand why they did not want to consider our actual point of origin,” she added.
In a repeat of the July 28 scene, the returnees who were asked to provide their samples again were taken to the CMO’s office on the evening of August 4 in one bus, with no social distancing whatsoever.
Another returnee shared concerns that even though one of them had tested positive on August 3, the remaining returnees were still made to sit together in the same bus on August 4.
Meanwhile, one of the returnees who got re-tested on August 4 reportedly received her result on the same day, around 9:40pm. “I’m surprised to have received the result so quickly but I’m happy as I tested negative,” she shared.
The re-test for the returnees was completed around 6:30 pm, according to sources.
‘COVID Care Centres full’
In another report, a returnee who tested COVID-19 positive on August 3 was told to wait in the QC as the COVID Care Centres in Dimapur were ‘full’.
While the returnees in the paid quarantine centres are in self isolation, this development has left the others worried.
“We do not mingle with each other and we are in our own rooms but we were worried knowing that we share the same quarantine centre,” one returnee said.
The returnee who tested positive was reportedly taken away on August 4, a day after the test result arrived.
Meanwhile, the district health officials were again unavailable for comments and multiple calls to them went unanswered.
.JPG)
