The Correspondent Bureau: At the peak of the nationwide lockdown, the Central Government struggling to meet the demand for testing people for symptoms of corona virus, started distributing testing kits to states and Punjab recently got a mere 1000 kits even though the state is expecting much higher figures even as other states too were looking at centre with a blank look also.
Around 90,000 NRIs are believed to have entered Punjab alone after the virus was first reported in India. Around one third of these are yet to be traced and tested for the virus. With mere 1000 kits, Jalandhar and Mohali districts have got 500 kits each, testing is a far cry. The state has identified 17 hotspots. Punjab Additional Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan said, the state government received 1000 rapid testing kits from ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research). Mohali and Julandhar have been given 500 kits to start the testing (RT-PCR tests) process. The state had ordered 10 lakh such kits from the ICMR with enquires raised for 10000 in the open market.
The facility (of sending testing kits) was likely to be extended to other districts, according to the situation of suspected cases and availability of rapid testing kits, Mahajan added. However, there was no word from where and how could the facility be extended when there was no availability of the kits in the states.
Similar story is of other states like Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh which have emerged at the leading locations of corona cases.
No international help coming soon
Even as the country was under extended lock down to ward off
the corona virus pandemic, the government has been trying to get hold of
testing kits from international market. The government was expecting the rapid
testing kits from China. ICMR was supposed to get about 700,000 rapid antibody
testing kits by April 8. The kits failed quality tests in China, resulting in
China putting on hold its consignment. China had supplied underwear masks to
Pakistan.
The government started to look at South Korea, Singapore and Switzerland for
help, according to Economic Times report on April 14. ICMR on April 11 had invited
bids for the procurement of 4.5 million antibody test kits.
At least four multinational manufacturers of Covid-19 test kits had expressed
interest to supply more than a million diagnostic kits to India. The US-based
Thermo Fisher Scientific, Germany’s Siemens and Altona, and South Korea’s Seegene
were expected to start supplying test kits.
India’s testing numbers have been low compared to many other countries the US and United Kingdom. The government’s scaled it efforts and has given over 200 labs to do the tests but it has hit a roadblock due unavailability of adequate kits for the tests.
Interestingly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi under pressure from US President Donald Trump exported over 30 million hydroxychloroquine tablets drawing flak in the country. As Modi started exporting, stories surfaced of the shortage of the medicine in the country.
Modi has appeared before the nation thrice on the Covid 19 but has not explained the government’s efforts to deal with the pandemic. Ironically even to extend the lockdown for 16 days, the Prime Minister did not consult the ICMR national body comprising 21 scientists formed to deal with the pandemic. The body did not meet even once in the week preceding the announcement to extend the nationwide lockdown, according to media reports.
Once the Lockdown started, the government suspended OPD operations of hospitals throughout the country thus leaving lakhs of patients to suffer without any medical recourse.
Testing Indian style
With the shortage of testing kits, it would be interesting to note how the health officials are testing in a supposedly marked ‘red zone’. Armed with a notebook and a pen, health officials in Chandigarh were seen moving from house to house, even in sector 21 where the first initial cases were reported, noting down details of the suspected patients. The details they were seeking from residents – how many members in the family and has any member experienced cough or cold recently. This sham is not only dangerous but should be considered criminal neglect on the part of the government.
There are approximately 12,380 corona virus cases with and deaths 414, according to official figures. However, there are numerous media reports of government under reporting the cases and death.
The Union health ministry has identified 170 districts as Covid-19 hotspots and 207 locations as potential hotspots with Chandigarh coming under the red zone implying the lockdown restrictions may be strictly followed till May 3 without relaxation.
