Covering up their inefficiencies and bad management, now governments are resorting to forcing people into undergoing mass mandatory testing, without realising that this by itself will be a move that will lead to more infections.  The Punjab government of Captain Amarinder Singh has ordered this knee-jerk move to counter the rising infections in the state. One such testing is likely to happen in the next hours at Skynet Enclave in Mohali. WSN appeals to the state machinery not to resort to police methods to control the virus, rather revamp the health system and facilities for one and all. 

THE PUNJAB GOVERNMENT’S ILL-INFORMED MOVE move to go for mass testing in micro-containment zones could well turn out to be a super spreader event since people are being asked to come to a spot turn by turn for such testing, little realising that the latest scientific research has proved how the virus is highly airborne and contagious.

“We now know that the virus remains in the air for hours. The very fact that the frontline workers are being exposed unnecessarily to hundreds of healthy citizens is putting the citizens’ life at stake. Besides, residents who have not met each other for months now are being asked to share the same biosphere and environment, thus making them vulnerable to the virus,” Dr Pyare Lal Garg, a well-known health activist.

Residents in housing societies of Mohali, where the Health Department officials and workers landed up on Monday morning for started mandatory testing, were highly enraged at such callous behaviour of local health authorities and wanted to know if the government actively wants people to become sick.

this is a wastage of scarce human resources as well as medical facilities. In any case, if the health officials are opting for any kind of instant testing, then this is further problematic because science has proven this kind of testing to have a huge error rate and 60 per cent of results could be false negative. This will present a completely distorted picture of virus stats,”

Dr. Pyare Lal Garg, former Dean, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Panjab University, Chandigarh

“A government that cannot assure people of hospital beds and oxygen is now doing something so foolish as to bring us in contact with neighbours and residents who we had not met in more than a year. Are we mad or has the government completely taken leave of its senses?” asked an angry resident of Skynet Enclave in Zirakpur.

Health Department officials asked hundreds, and in some cases, thousands of residents to reach a single spot in the name of testing, “turn by turn”, completely disregarding the fact that since the virus is airborne, they will be exposing the entire population to the deadly virus.

Disregarding the science behind the need and utility of mass testing when community spread is well known, the government’s move will make residents highly vulnerable to the virus. Top publications like the Lancet have published reams of medical literature to underline how the virus stays in the air for hours.

Many residents in such micro-containment zones said they were asked to reach a single spot in turns for this mandatory testing.

Virus is airborne, but health officials bring people to same spot, in the same biosphere.

“A move like Mandatory Sampling of all in the Micro-containment zone to limit the spread of the contagion is actually a move to spread the virus among the populace. I am shocked that anyone with a sane mind can think of such a foolish strategy that will prove surely counterproductive,” said Dr Garg, former Registrar of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Punjab’s only health university.

Health Department officials expressed their helplessness while conceding that the move was not only worthless from a scientific point of view but could also be a disaster as it can prove to a Super Spreader event. An official said local councillors and small-time politicians were trying to show their ‘karguzari’ by forcing the health officials to send such teams. “Everyone is trying to play doctor, and the most foolish are in positions of power,” said an enraged health official who was part of a team in a housing society in Zirakpur.

“Everyone is trying to play doctor, and the most foolish are in positions of power,” said an enraged health official who was part of a team in a housing society in Zirakpur.

In Skynet Enclave, health officials stationed themselves in a small office of the society and summoned residents to “come in turns for sampling,” even knowing fully well that the airborne virus will lead to dangerous consequences.

Dr Garg said it falls upon the civil society and aware residents to safeguard their health and resist any foolish measures by unthinking officials since politicians seem little bothered and even ministers, including the minister for health, have been publicly flouting Covid guidelines.

“Besides, this is wastage of scarce human resources as well as medical facilities. In any case, if the health officials are opting for any kind of instant testing, then this is further problematic because science has proven this kind of testing to have a huge error rate and 60 per cent of results could be false negative. This will present a completely distorted picture of virus stats,” said Dr Garg, also former Dean, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Panjab University, Chandigarh.

A health department official said he strongly opposed such moves and exempted himself from part of such a foolish exercise. He said similar moves in the first wave of the virus had proved counter-productive.