Punjab Government has decided to counter the appalling move by some villagers across the State to quarantine health concerns by isolating themselves from COVID-19 tests, and even government health facilities.
Right from easing the home quarantine norms to launching a massive awareness campaign by involving not only the lawmakers and senior officials but also those affected by coronavirus and also those who have recovered from the contagion.
That was not all! With the State Government attributing the people’s resistance from undergoing tests or getting admitted in the government run health facilities to the social-media rumours, including alleged organ harvesting of coronavirus patients, the State Police force has also been taken on board to check the unscrupulous elements.
Series of incidents have come to light in the recent past wherein health medical teams were either not allowed to enter the villages or were beaten up. Several villages in different areas of the state have even resolved, with panchayats passing resolutions and writing to the respective Deputy Commissioners, to not to give samples to the health teams visiting villages, or getting the villagers admitted in government hospitals.
Some panchayats in Punjab’s Malwa region, especially Moga, Muktsar, Patiala, Sangrur, Bathinda, and Mansa districts, have passed resolutions, while in Majha region, there have also been a few instances of similar panchayat resolutions. At the same time, barring one instance in Nawanshahr, no instances of panchayats passing resolutions against COVID testing or hospitalization of residents have emerged in the state’s Doaba region.
It has been alleged that there was a lack of proper medical care at the government hospitals, including poor food, arguing that the patient could get better by quarantining and treating at home only.
Besides, the social media rumours like removing human organs at the time of patient’s death are also adding to the woes of the Health Department teams. “This is causing a lot of problem including delay in taking samples in any particular area. The teams first have to sensitize people, and then collect samples. In many instances, the teams were beaten up or pushed out of villages,” a senior government official told The Pioneer.
Terming the situation serious, the official maintained that health teams find it tough to meet their daily targets, hampering its functioning and to check the spread further. “The videos going around on social media alleging inadequate health facilities, improper treatment, and escalating death rate in the government hospitals, coupled with rumours regarding removal of organs and payment to the health staff for declaring people corona positive are also adding to our trouble,” added the official.
Time and again, the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has appealed to the people to get themselves tested at the first instance of coronavirus symptom.
Making the same appeal today, the state Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu made it clear that till the time we don’t have a vaccine, testing at the right time is the only solution to it.
Cracking down on the rumour mongers, Patiala police on Sunday booked two persons for creating confusion and spreading rumors about corona pandemic and corona warriors in the minds of the general public and arrested them for uploading videos and posts on various social media platforms.
Mansa police has also registered a case on the charges of spreading rumours about COVID-19 and health teams against 23 years old Raman Singh of Nangla village in Bathinda, for “spreading rumours on WhatsApp”.
Batala police has also registered a case against a person for stopping health workers from performing COVID-19 tests in Hargobindpur.