Making a mockery of the COVID protocol, a security guard, deployed at Raja Sukhdev Singh Hospital in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, was caught on camera collecting samples of the suspected COVID patients. After photographs of the security guard went viral, authorities terminated him from services for "violating COVID protocol."
In the photographs, the security guard was seen taking samples of people who were gathered at Poonch hospital for a COVID test.
Not only the security guard was taking samples of the suspected COVID patients, he was also not wearing the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kit-mandatory of collecting samples. Ironically, no member of the para-medical staff was present on the spot where the security guard was collecting samples of people for COVID tests.
Terminated from Services
Taking serious note of the incident, the Medical Superintendent of Raja Sukhdev Singh Hospital Poonch immediately terminated the security guard from services. "Security guard has been sacked for his action. We will investigate the matter how he was collecting samples," Medical Superintendent, Dr. Mushtaq Hussain Shah, told International Business Times.
162 FIRs registered against violators of COVID norms in Poonch
As many as 162 FIRs have been registered against the persons for violation of COVID-related SOPs and a fine amounting to Rs 10 lakh has been imposed besides 4,000 challans have also been made in Poonch district. Authorities have imposed strict restrictions in the district where positive patients are less as compared to other parts of J&K.
As many as 1,47,660 people above the age of 45 years have been vaccinated registering progress of 56 percent. The District administration has taken several steps to ensure a hundred percent vaccination of the targeted groups in the district.
As of now, 1,07,587 and 1,88,288 persons have been tested for RAT and RT-PCR respectively. There are 8,283 total positive cases in the district, of which, 3,417 are active positive cases while 4,762 are recovered cases. The positivity rate in the district is 2.81 percent, the lowest in J&K.
