Rolling out red carpet for Covid?

GS Paul
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, May 18

Call it a lapse on the part of authorities or lack of etiquette among the public, the discarded clothing and other belongings of the Covid patients were left abandoned leading to potential cause of infection.

Outside Guru Nanak Dev Hospital (GNDH), which caters to critical patients from various districts of Majha and Doaba region, mounds of abandoned articles got piled up out in the open opposite to the Emergency Ward.

On the other hand, used PPE kits too were discovered in a corner of Durgiana Shivpuri (cremation ground).

According to medical experts, the clothes worn by those who succumbed to the disease or the ones under treatment, ought to be disposed of properly in the bio-medical waste incinerators, otherwise it would only help in spreading the pandemic.

Principal of Government Medical College Dr Rajiv Devgan said due to lack of civic mannerism, people not only throw the discarded clothes and beddings in the hospital premises but also elsewhere on the roadside and markets too. “I myself have noticed this menace in well-to-do colonies like Race Course road and Shastri Nagar areas where patients’ clothes and beddings were thrown,” he added.

He said barring the ones admitted in ICU who wear designated dress only, the under-treatment patients are usually ambulatory. So, they wash their clothes either themselves or by their attendants in warm water. “We have bio-waste disposal unit in GNDH premises and our staff is liable to dispose of the medical waste every alternate day. Yet, better sense should prevail among the residents also that they should properly dispose the patients’ discarded material so that it may not end up causing infection.”

At the cremation ground, the Covid protocols demand that the cremation is done under the supervision of administrative officials. The body getting wrapped in a designated plastic bag and the ones involved in performing the last rites would have to wear PPE kits. Astonishingly, post cremation, some leave it on the premises of the cremation ground.

Head (Punjab) of Step One Covid National Doctors’ helpline Dr Sarpreet Singh Gill said it was gross neglience and dangerous as well, as it poses high risk of potential infections. “The patients’ clothing has to be incinerated through bio-medical waste process. The used PPE kits, too, have to undergo incineration process. Otherwise, it would certainly spread infection,” he said.