Vadodara: The disagreement over reports on Covid-19 from the hospitals, laboratories and crematoriums now seem to have put the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) in a tight spot. The VMC opposition has now raised difficult questions that the civic body is finding difficult to reply.
Reports had indicated that crematoriums and those involved with body disposal were working overtime. Corporator from the opposition Congress party in the VMC, Ami Ravat, reached the Khaswadi crematorium — the biggest in the city — late on Thursday night and checked records there.
Ravat said that at 11pm on Thursday night, the records at the crematorium revealed that 28 bodies had been cremated there in 23 hours.
“Even as we were standing there, two more arrived. We were told that eight more were scheduled to arrive there. This is abnormally high and the figure of only one crematorium in the city and does not include graveyards,” she said.
Ravat pointed out that when she had questioned the VMC health officer about several persons testing positive in rapid antigen tests, but the official data not reflecting these, she was told that antigen tests were not confirmatory and hence not counted. “I was told that the data includes only RT-PCR tests from the two government laboratories. The RT-PCR tests of private laboratories and the rapid tests are not accounted for,” she said.
An alarming situation that Ravat pointed out was that patients were being asked to isolate at home after testing positive at urban health centres.
“They use public transport to go back home, purchase medicines and groceries while returning home. At home too, they may not have facilities to quarantine. The situation is alarming,” she said adding that the government needs to start isolation facilities where such persons can go. Ravat and her husband, state Congress spokesperson Narendra Ravat, have submitted a memorandum regarding various issues pertaining to Covid-19 to the district collector. They said that they would try to meet deputy chief minister Nitin Patel if he visited the city on Saturday.
VMC's medical officer (health) Dr Devesh Patel said that the data provided by VMC included all RT-PCR positive cases. He said deaths were declared as and when their audits were completed by the death audit committee.