A district administration report has affirmed that as many as 47 staffers including the senior officials of Madhya Pradesh Directorate of Health Services have contracted the novel coronavirus.
Senior officials, who contracted the virus include – former Principal Secretary Pallavi Jain Govil, Health Director J Vijay Kumar, Additional Director Kailash Bundela, Joint Director Upendra Dubey, Additional Director Dr Veena Sinha, Deputy Directors Pramod Goyal, Dr Ruby Khan, Dr Saurabh Purohit, Dr Himanshu Jayaswar and Director Dr Ranjana Gupta.
Others who have contracted the virus are technical staff, a computer operator, peons, a gunman and a few others. Some of the kin of these staffers too have contracted the disease.
Hence, after taking cognisance to several media reports and a tweet by Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha on the matter, the Madhya Pradesh Human Rights Commission (MPHRC) had served a notice to Chief Secretary Iqbal Singh Bains, seeking details of the staff members who contracted the disease.
The letter forwarded by District Collector to the MPHRC on April 10, claimed that all the 47 staffers who tested positive for Covid-19 were hospitalised and kept in isolation.
“The staffers were in constant touch of the officials who tested positive,” the report stated.
Moreover, the district administration has clarified that all the prescribed guidelines were followed in treatment of these staffers and there is no proof of these officials being guilty of any negligence.
There are close to 50 officials and 250 employees in Health Directorate office based at Satpura Bhawan in Bhopal.
It was alleged that health officers, who were tested positive for coronavirus were not hospitalised immediately and were later sent to hospital from isolation after the intervention by some senior government officials.
Speaking to News18, MPHRC spokesperson affirmed that the response by the district administration was received at 8.47 pm on Friday. The commission is studying the information and would react to it in due time.
Social activist Ajay Dubey who has flagged these anomalies told THE that he is filing a petition with the MPHRC as intervener in the matter primarily underlining three point — “the collector has offered false information in the official reply, details of Covid-19 notified hospitals was not given where the staffers were admitted and travel and contact history has not been prepared for ex-Principal Secretary Pallavi Jain Govil”.