Anantapur: 'Ensure basic amenities in quarantine centres'

Anantapur: Even as more people are pouring into the quarantine centres with each passing day, the government needs to make stay in the centres interesting and comfortable.

Different categories of people both middle-class and people belonging to higher strata of society are being lodged in the centres.

These centres should be like home away from home with minimum basic amenities, decent bathrooms and latrines and well maintained apart from a television set, news papers and with arrangement to recharge mobiles and decent cots and beds and hygienic bed sheets.

People who are tested negative for Covid-19 should be sent back to their home quarantine.

Pitifully, no quarantine centre has basic amenities that can make a person in isolation happy and cheerful and make him forget his home. These are small gestures but they go a long way in keeping inmates in good spirits.

The so called model quarantine centre called TDTC Centre announced by ministers that the centre will have best of facilities and will be a model to other centres is also in a bad shape sans basic facilities.

One N Kareem Khan, principal of Kendriya Vidhyalaya, Guntakal, in a letter mailed to the district officials mentioned that he had gone to New Delhi on official work on March 16 by air and returned on March 17 by air. During his Delhi visit, he had visited KV Sangathan office and stayed in NCERT guest house and used N-95 masks all through.

After returning from Delhi he had informed Guntakal Railway hospital authorities, who advised him to remain house quarantine.

However on April 4, he was asked by the government to come to CLRC quarantine centre in Anantapur.

On April 5 his blood samples were taken and so far test results have not been made known.

Speaking to The Hans India on telephone, that he is a diabetic and a heart patient and needed medicines for daily administration.

His efforts to call the officials concerned, quarantine nodal officer, help line number and even the collector's number was in vain as none of the numbers responded. For his survival he needed medicines urgently but none is responding. He is urging authorities to release him from quarantine if he has tested negative.

Life is miserable with no newspaper, television that does not work or none to attend to his needs, he said and claimed that he has none of the symptoms of the virus. He is asking for urgent supply of medicines if he has to remain some more days in the isolation centre.

Kareem can be contacted on 9494751548

Dr M Suresh Babu, state president, Praja Science Vedika, told The Hans India that the 32 quarantine centres in the district should be well developed and their ambience decent to make staying comfortable. Loneliness and isolation is a terrible thing and one should have basic amenities including television which helps in passing time.