Afaq Bhat
Srinagar, June 9: Senior Kashmiri journalist testing positive for COVID-19 at CD Hospital here and then testing negative for the deadly virus at SKIMS Soura on the very next day has stirred the hornet’s nest.
The journalist who tested positive at CD Hospital sent his swab sample for retesting at SKIMS just to cross check the result but the report surprised him and his other colleagues as within 24 hours it came negative. The journalist made his report public which led to the helmsmen issuing series of statements to tell the people that there is nothing wrong with the testing facilities in either of the hospitals.
“This issue was highlighted as the victim was a journalist. He mustered courage to call spade a spade and pointed out loopholes in the system. Had, common man done the same no one would have listened to him. He would have been asked to shut up and stay put with the positive patients,” said a senior citizen.
A patient admitted at Rainawari Hospital told a local news agency that his samples were taken on June 2 and on June 5, the testing lab at CD Hospital declared him positive. The patient who hails from Narwara area in Srinagar’s old city said that on June 8, he was declared negative for COVID -19 infection. “I was shocked and wanted to know how it happened. I was told that some samples in the lab were misplaced by the staff and now when his sample was found, it tested negative,” he said.
“I don’t know how two samples of the same person can be found first positive and then negative. Either they conduct tests in a casual way, without taking them seriously or they declare the results without any testing” he claimed. “If my samples were lost, how come they declared me positive?” he asked.
An analyst told Precious Kashmir that the whistleblower journalist has lifted the lid and in coming days we can hear many stories. “People who are handling the testing process should understand that they are doing a very sensitive job. Anyone who is declared positive is not the only one who gets affected. All his contacts are traced and put under quarantine. The goofs up at testing level can lead to a catastrophe. Such errors are unacceptable.”
He said, “After the negative report of the journalist became public some medicos claimed that a person can turn negative after some days but they forgot that the case they were talking about was just 24-hours old. One can understand that the frontline COVID warriors are under tremendous stress but they have to balance their acts to ensure that people don’t suffer due to a negligence of few people.”
