AP officials cash in on home isolation kits

Medicines, kits supplied by government being sold at profit

The Covid-19 worries notwithstanding, several people are trying to earn a fast buck on its name, including government officials, in East Godavari district.

The state government has been encouraging Covid-19 positive people with relatively less viral load to go for home quarantine provided they have a separate room attached with a washroom. Towards this, it has started distribution of ‘CovidHome Quarantine Kit’ comprising a pulse oximeter, first-aid medicines, sanitiser, hypochlorite 5% solution, liquid soap, surgical masks, tissues, disposable gloves, disposable bags and others to patients recommended for home quarantine by health authorities.

Though all medicines and other materials in the kit are being supplied by the state government, district health authorities are procuring kit bags made of rexine locally and are charging `1,200-1,300 for each bag, though it costs about `150-200.

Health authorities distributed such kit bags to nearly 1,000 patients. Subsequently, with many people opting for home quarantine, pulse oximeters are not being given to patients and kit bags are replaced with polythene covers.

However, the district health authorities have come up with bills towards procurement of the Covid-home quarantine kits for nearly `34 lakh.

Health personnel privy to such development in the department say that even if 1,000 kit bags were distributed with each one costing `200, the total cost of procurement would be just `2 lakh and not

`34 lakh.

The district health authorities maintain that at present 10,980 Covid-19 positive patients are in home quarantine while

9,863, who were in home quarantine earlier, have turned Covid-19 negative.

Health personnel appealed to the district administration to order an inquiry into the excessive billing and punish the culprits for cheating gullible Covid-hit people.

THOUGH ALL medicines and other materials in the kit are being supplied by the state government, district health authorities are procuring kit bags made of rexine locally and are charging

`1,200-1,300 for each bag, though it costs about

`150-200.

— TEJO ROY Ignoring protocols for handling dead bodies of Covid-19 victims, a patient’s body is being shifted on a rickshaw from a government hospital at Bapatla in Guntur district on Wednesday. According to hospital officials, the patient was brought with chest discomfort. However, he died within 15 minutes of being given first-aid by a doctor. After he died, the staff conducted a Covid test that turned out to be positive. The hospital staff informed the attendants about it. When they wished to shift the body in a vehicle arranged by them, hospital staff gave two PPE kits for their protection. The picture of relatives transporting the Covid-19 infected person’s body in a rickshaw went viral on Internet.