Morning assemblies in Rajasthan schools banned

Raj Sadosh

Abohar, February 4

With swine flu death toll in Rajasthan rising to 60, morning assemblies in schools have been banned till month-end.

The district education officers received directions from divisional offices of the department today. This was a preventive step, officials said.

In the district hospital at Sriganganagar, 40 km from here, blood samples of six suspected patients were taken today. They include a doctor of Pooja Colony, four belong to Brahma Colony, SSB road, Meera Marg, border village Kotha and one is from Abohar. So far, 14 patients have been examined.

Blood samples have been sent to Bikaner and it takes three days to receive the report. Two patients have died so far. One of them belonged to Sadulshehar, 30 km from Abohar.

The deceased has been identified as Hakam Singh (60). His relatives alleged that the official ambulance was not immediately provided to shift him to Jaipur and the staff of private vehicles was also not reportedly inclined to escort the patient.

Leaves of doctors and medical staff have been cancelled in view of the exigency. Rapid action teams, each headed by a doctor, have been positioned at each sub-divisional office. District Collector RS Jakhar said at an emergency meeting held today that apathy would not be tolerated.

Even as state medical and health director BR Meena claimed that screening of patients has been strengthened and medicine supplies in hospitals have been increased along with setting up of isolation wards and ICUs, The State Nurses Association led by its president Jeet Kanwer today informed Dr Piyush Rajvanshi, in charge, medical officer, at Sriganganagar that medicines to treat swine flu patients were not available.

He passed on the information to the Controller of Medicines, who said required medicines would be purchased from the open market for a while. The recent spurt in cases of swine flu in Rajasthan suggests that official measures to control the virus have proved miserably insufficient. This month alone, 50 people have tested positive for swine flu across the state while 13 have died.