ANI Administration Not Prepared for the Disaster in the Making
Port Blair, July 31: With seven deaths in the past three days, death scare due to COVID-19 pandemic now looms large over the Islanders of Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Hundred positive cases in 48 hours and the number seem never ending. The worst being, the Andaman & Nicobar Administration is not yet prepared for the disaster which is in the making.
The increasing numbers of corona death cases in the GB Pant Hospital has not only send shivers across the islanders but has left the lone referral hospital with no option than to become a den of corona cases. Doctors, nurses, paramedics and staff have been tested positive in this hospital, leaving the hospital in a big crisis.
Sources inform that the very basic medicines to treat COVID-19 positive cases viz Vitamin C and B, Dolo (Paracitemol), insulin etc. is not available in this hospital since past two odd months. The worst being, no efforts being made by the authorities to procure them. Patients are left to die in the ventilators.
Apart from the GB Pant Hospital, there are Primary Health Centres which are getting shut after the staffs posted in the centres are getting positive. Primary Health Centre at Manglutan remains closed after the Medical Incharge tested positive. Similar is the case of Ferrargunj Health Centre which has been closed after the pharmacist tested positive. Cases are the same with different departments of Andaman & Nicobar Administration including the Court of Law, which was not spared by the pandemic.
In a sad incident reported today afternoon, an 85 year lady, resident of Aberdeen Bazar was declared as brought dead to the hospital at about 12.00 noon. The patient was shifted from Pillar Hospital (Private Hospital) to GB Pant as the condition got deteriorated. The irony is that the body was left in the OPD of GB Pant, exposed to other patients for hours together for want of vehicle to shift the body. Two of the relatives were made to wear PPE Kits and wait near the body, till a solution was met.
Similarly a 48 year old male, a resident of Junglighat, Port Blair succumbed to the virus today at GB Pant Hospital, totalling the death toll to seven in the past three days. Sources inform that more are in the ventilator, whose condition seems to be critical.
The situation is getting worse in the South Andaman with people moving out of the containment zones to seek shelter with their relatives in different parts of district. The reason being the unpredictable overnight decisions taken by the Administration to lockdown or to stop convoys on the ATR. The migration of people from containment zones also indicators that the authorities are not in a position of contact tracing anymore.
With much hue and cry around; with cases unstoppable and deaths increasing; the District Administration is now seen running around, begging for begs and mattresses from the NGOs to convert the Industrial Training Institute, Dollygunj into a new COVID-19 Hospital. What more pathetic can it be?
Considering the disaster in the making due to mismanagement clearly visible, Andaman Chronicle appeals to the authorities in the Andaman & Nicobar Administration to have a sense of empathy towards the islanders, keeping in mind that they are humans too and have their loved ones who are not immortal or COVID-19 resistant.