covid: Rat-before-jab Diktat At Pimpri Hosp Sparks Chaos | Pune News – Times of India

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PUNE: A must rapid antigen test (RAT) diktat for all 18-plus anti-Covid vaccine beneficiaries, including the frontline and healthcare workers and the senior citizens seeking the protection dose, triggered a chaos at the Pimpri-based Jijamata hospital (old) on Monday morning.
The mandate led to five people visiting the hospital for the vaccine testing Covid positive before noon. However, safety measures were not in place at the hospital, one of the beneficiaries told the TOI correspondent at the facility. The beneficiary said there were high chances of people testing positive of Covid exposing the vaccine beneficiaries, and other people present at the facility, to the contagion.

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Aparna More, medical officer of the Jijamata hospital, said the rapid antigen test was made mandatory in the wake of the recent rise in Covid cases. She added that the rapid antigen test was also conducted on the vaccine beneficiaries at the hospital on Sunday, when at least 15 people tested Covid positive.
More said, “The people testing Covid positive are either referred to the quarantine centres or told to isolate themselves at home depending on their status (symptomatic or asymptomatic).”
On being asked about the chances of the Covid positive people exposing the healthy ones waiting in queues for the vaccine to the virus, More said, “Despite instructions, it is difficult to control the crowd in a queue.”
Vinayak Hatte, a 67-year-old citizen who had come for his precaution dose at the centre, said he tested negative following the rapid antigen test and was allowed to go ahead for the jab.
A Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) official, who had come for the precaution dose with another staff member at the hospital, was also asked to get tested first. Though the official tested negative for the contagion and was allowed to get vaccinated, the staff member tested positive.
When TOI contacted PCMC commissioner Rajesh Patil on the issue, he said he was unaware of any such order and instructed the health department to withdraw the mandatory testing order.
“The testing is not mandatory at any of our vaccination sites. Citizens should go ahead and take the vaccine at the earliest. Considering the rise in the number of Covid cases in the past few days, only vaccination and Covid- appropriate behaviour can stop the spread of the contagion,” Patil told TOI.

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