KARACHI:
In December 2020, one of my family members in Lahore was tested positive for Covid-19 from Shaukat Khanum Lab Collection Centre, which noted all the required identification details and forwarded it to the Healthcare Department of the Punjab government. The very next day, the respective department sent their own lab attendants to our house to test our entire family free of cost, as per government notification, and a few other individuals who had been in close contact with us. Thus, we all decided to isolate ourselves and wait for the results, which never arrived. We were left with no choice but to have ourselves tested again through a private testing laboratory.
The incident shows the department’s inefficiency in producing results within the given time frame in turn putting more people at risk. Although the government’s efforts to control Covid-19 have been anything but laudable, there are a few hiccups that seriously need to be addressed. I urge the Punjab Healthcare Department to take notice of such cases and run a proper investigation into this careless attitude.
Fatima Attique
Lahore
Published in The Express Tribune, February 4th, 2021.
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