While Kashmir has reported 14 Covid-19 cases, the overcrowded quarantine centres have exposed chinks in the policy to tackle the pandemic.
On Friday, many patients admitted to Chest Diseases Hospital(CDH) were shifted to Kashmir Nursing Home for two week quarantine.
These patients have tested negative for Covid-19. Although,as per the protocol being followed by Government Medical College (GMC)Srinagar, they had to be discharged and sent to home quarantine, theauthorities were forced to change the policy.
“That is because these patients were admitted in thevicinity of a patient who tested positive on Thursday,” a doctor said.
One among these patients shifted to the Nursing Home saidthere was no let off in the rush of the patients at the new facility.
“At least three patients have been kept in one room and Ifany one among us tests positive, we all will be quarantined for another twoweeks,” the patient feared.
Fears aside, the prolonged stay of patients was puttingburden on isolation and quarantine facilities, said a senior doctor.
The decision to put together the suspected cases and thosewho had tested negative reflects “misplaced priorities” he said.
However, space and manpower shortage has forced hospitals tokeep the patients together.
At Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) too,the quarantine facility was “overflowing”.
The facility, with 20 beds, was fully occupied on Thursday.The Institute has been retaining patients for two weeks, even while they testnegative, which a doctor said, was “stretching the facility beyond limits”.
The decision of J&K government to quarantine nearly 1500students and travelers coming in from low infection load countries likeBangladesh has led to resentment within medical fraternity.
A senior physician said by quarantining these “low risk”people, government was exhausting much of the manpower and space resources.
“When we need them the most, we will not have the resourcesavailable,” he said.
At present, there were around 40 quarantine centers inSrinagar, each with one doctor and two paramedics deployed.
“If we deploy this staff for contact tracing, we would beable to contain spread of the infection in a better way,” the doctor said.
However, while the government enforced a locally tailoredquarantine policy and retained people travelling from many foreign countries,the emphasis on particular places, a doctor said, helped people, even with symptoms,sneaking out.
Of 14 people who tested positive in Kashmir, four had travelhistory to Saudi Arabia while eight of them had travel history to differentstates of India, while two children had contact with a infected person withforeign travel history.
Two of the positive patients had allegedly been returnedhome from health facilities without testing and admission. Some fresh positivecases have been the contacts of the two previous cases.
This, a doctor said, tells a lot about “our narrow casedefinition”. “Confusion among clinicians about ordering a Covid-19 test is aticking time bomb,” said a doctor.
The doctor advocated change in case definition and liberaltesting. “No law bars a clinician from ordering an investigation which he deemsnecessary,” he said. “Covid-19 is a pandemic. By putting emphasis on certainareas, we are only adding to the chaos,” he said.
Dr Farooq Jan, medical superintendent SKIMS acknowledgedthat the institute quarantine facility was full to the maximum limit. “We areadding a ward now. It will be our new quarantine facility,” he said.
Dr S Saleem Khan, nodal officer Covid-19 agreed thatnegative and suspected cases need to be separated. He said the Nursing Home wasbeing put to use to “segregate patients”.
“It is an emergency and we are putting all our resources touse,” he said.