Doctors, healthcare workers return to work; people line up to give throat swab samples

Mysore/Mysuru: In a major relief to Mysuru District that is combating the rising cases of COVID-19 contagion and the resultant deaths, hundreds of Government doctors and allied health personnel resumed work this morning after four days. 

They restarted the healthcare machinery and testing process that had come to a grinding halt following the suicide of Nanjangud Taluk Health Officer Dr. S.R. Nagendra last Thursday.

The suicide of Dr. Nagendra over the alleged harassment meted out to him by the official machinery, especially from the Zilla Panchayat CEO Prashanth Kumar Mishra (now transferred without positing) was the trigger of the protest by Government doctors and allied healthcare workers. 

Mishra had purportedly given targets to ramp up COVID tests in Nanjangud that was one of the early virus clusters with scores of employees of a pharmaceutical company testing positive. Following the call by Karnataka Government Medical Officers Association (KGMOA) to withdraw their protest yesterday, doctors and healthcare workers returned to work this morning. 

The strike has been conditionally withdrawn and doctors wore black armbands as a mark of protest till the inquiry report against Prashanth Kumar Mishra was submitted.

Doctors resuming work has come as a major relief to the State Government since the strike had affected healthcare services, especially COVID-19 testing across Mysuru District. 

Despite Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa’s assurance of an impartial probe, doctors had continued their strike, bringing COVID-19 testing to a complete halt. With no testing, the number of cases from Mysuru showed ‘zero’ in the State bulletin since Friday. Only last evening, the Mysuru’s update showed 92 positive cases.  

This morning, COVID testing process began at Town Hall and at Quba Public School, said Dr. Chidambara, District Vector Borne Diseases Control Officer. Gradually, the testing process will pick up pace at other parts of the District and city,  he added.