In Uttar Pradesh’s Etah, District Magistrate (DM) Vibha Chahal served a show cause notice to Etah Chief Medical Officer Umesh Tripathi after COVID medical kits containing expired medicines were allegedly distributed among patients being treated at home, news agency PTI reported.
Chahal warned the CMO of strict action for putting the lives of COVID-19 patients in danger, after a patient complained of finding an expired medicine in a kit. The CMO said that the allegation was verified and confirmed after a probe into the incident.
Tripathi said that four government employees responsible for packing the kits, along with additional CMO Ram Singh were issued the notice, PTI reported.
Malaria Officer Lokman Singh also stated that the investigation revealed that one box in the lot of ten had medicines that had expired in January 2020, over a year ago.
The medicine kits have been recalled to the CMO’s office, said Singh, who along with a doctor is responsible for preparing and distributing the kits from the COVID control room.
Successfully Managed COVID Surge: Yogi Adityanath
The case of medical negligence comes in the backdrop of UP’s Yogi government lauding its effort to curb the spread of the virus, saying that the state has now moved into a ‘safe zone’.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, in a recent statement said that UP has proved critics wrong and managed to “successfully blunt” the spike in cases through the trace, test and treat method, IANS reported.
He added, “We are now preparing for a probable third wave.”
Further, the CM announced that under a new, 'Mera Gaon, Corona Mukt Gaon' initiative, the government aims to ensure that rural areas are free of COVID-19, by placing monitoring committee in place to carry out patient identification, distribution of medicine kits and implementation of quarantine rules.
After weeks of criticism targeted at the UP administration, the Allahabad HC on Thursday had appreciated government’s approach towards COVID management in the state.
A division bench comprising Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Ajit Kumar observed, "We have perused the report and do appreciate that some work has been done with regard to the improvement of medical infrastructure and hope that similar efforts will be made in respect of other districts as well,” IANS quoted.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the state had witness another instance of dangerous negligence in vaccine administration when health workers in Siddharthnagar district gave the Covaxin jab to 20 villagers who had been inoculate with Covishield for their first dose.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)