india

Updated: Mar 21, 2020 00:24 IST

The 19-year-old son of Bhubaneswar AIIMS superintendent who came in contact with 46 people upon his return from the United Kingdom a couple of days ago has tested positive for coronavirus on Friday, putting his father into the dock for allegedly hiding his travel history.

The son of medical superintendent of AIIMS Bhubaneswar, Sachidananda Mohanty had flown from the United Kingdom to Delhi first and then travelled to Bhubaneswar by air on March 18 by an Indigo flight.

At the Biju Patnaik international airport, the thermal screening did not find anything amiss and he was allowed to go. However, on March 19 he complained of problems in breathing and was taken to AIIMS Bhubaneswar where he was kept in the isolation ward of the hospital.

The report of his swab sample sent to the Regional Medical Research Centre in the city was positive for Covid-19, said officials of the health department.

So far, 66 samples of Covid-19 suspects in Odisha have been tested by the laboratory in Bhubaneswar and two samples out of the 62 available results have tested positive, while four results are still awaited.

Official spokesman for Covid-19 in Odisha, Subroto Bagchi said the youth had come in contact with 46 persons including his family members out of which 43 have been identified.

Sachidanand Mohanty, the father of the patient is the nodal officer of nCovid-19 for AIIMS Bhubaneswar and on Thursday he had attended a coordination committee meeting with state government officials on Covid-19.

All members of the Mohanty family, his driver, peon and other associated staff have been kept in quarantine.

“The State government is attaching huge importance to the AIIMS issue. The analysis of the issue is being done at the highest level. Each of the persons identified has been put under observation and quarantine,” said Bagchi.

But the alleged negligence of the Bhubaneswar AIIMS medical superintendent triggered a mini-revolt in the institution with resident doctors demanding action against him for hiding the travel history of his son during his admission to the isolation ward.

In a letter to the director of AIIMS Bhubaneswar, the Resident Doctors Association alleged that the medical superintendent and isolation unit in-charge hid the travel history of the 19-year-old.

“The patient was brought to the isolation unit and kept in the Doctors Room, with his travel history concealed. The patient was not admitted for 12 hours. When enquired about the case, Dr Sourin Bhuniya (isolation ward in-charge) said that it was a high profile case and didn’t disclose the details. He himself filled up the case sheet of the patient while hiding the relevant travel history.

“This patient tested positive on March 19 and is the 2nd case of Covid-19 in Odisha. On further enquiry, it was found that the patient was the son of the medical superintendent himself and had returned from the UK 3 days back. It is both medical and administrative negligence on the part of the superintendent by not revealing that he is direct contact, thus risking the spread of Covid-19,” the letter from the RDA said.

The RDA further alleged that its members felt betrayed by one of their own and the premier institute was yet to come up with a Standard Operating Procedure to handle suspected cases of Covid-19.

“Even though the availability of personal protection equipment(protective gears) have been lacking in the critical areas such as Covid clinic and casualty since the last few days, the residents have continuously provided service without fail. However, this act of concealing his son’s and his exposure status is highly condemnable and requires strict action by the higher authority,” the RDA said.

In another letter to the AIIMS authorities, a senior resident of the medicine department requested for home quarantine for 14 days as he had come in contact with the Covid-19 positive patient without knowing the travel history of the patient.

When contacted, AIIMS Bhubaneswar medical superintendent Dr S Mohanty rubbished the allegations saying they were absolutely false.

“Nothing more to comment,” he messaged.

Dr Gitanjali Batmanabane, AIIMS Bhubaneswar director said all the primary contacts (those who touched the person) of the patient including the family members and driver have been asked to go under quarantine.

“There has been some misinformation circulating in media. The patient came in the morning hours of 19th with some symptoms of Covid-19. The patient was immediately taken into isolation and his sample was sent for test. The sample came positive. All his close contacts have been identified and advised home isolation. The news that is circulating that there is gross violations of rules is incorrect. There is no need to panic,” said B Gitanjali, director of AIIMS Bhubaneswar.

State government officials said action may be initiated against the AIIMS superintendent under Covid-19 2020 regulations for his negligent act as he hid the travel history of his son. As per the Covid 2020 regulations, any person/institution/organization found violating any provision of these Regulations would be deemed to have committed an offence punishable under section 188 of IPC (45 of 1860). The offences are however bailable.

On March 15, a 33-year-old youth of Bhubaneswar studying computer science in Milan city of Italy tested positive for coronavirus, the first such case in Odisha.

Meanwhile, the Odisha government on Friday restricted congregation of more than 7 persons at any place in the state and asked all stand-alone restaurants, bars, coffee shops, canteens, eateries of all kinds where a large number of people dine and congregate to be closed immediately until further orders. Further, all big hotels were asked to maintain a distance of 2 metres among guests in their in-house restaurants. All hotels and restaurants have been advised to encourage customers/guests to take takeaways.

The government also asked taxis and auto-rickshaw drivers to operate inside the city limits of all the Urban Local Bodies on alternate days. Public transport vehicles like buses, taxis and auto-rickshaws having odd registration numbers would ply on odd-numbered days and those having even registration numbers will ply on even-numbered days, the order said. All markets, shopping complexes, village haats will be regulated to allow only sale of food items including groceries, vegetables, meat, chicken, fish, egg and other essential conveniences and daily need items, the government said.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik also requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to postpone house-listing, National Population Register and Census-related activities due to start on April 1 in view of the COVID-19 scare. Stating that Odisha was fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and all efforts of the State machinery were directed towards its containment, Patnaik said, mobilisation for Census and other concerned activities will pose a great risk for field functionaries and people as well.