Noida: At the District Combined Hospital in Noida's Sector-30, a busy crowd of patients and visitors were gathered both inside and outside the facility, several without masks, even as it is one of the main government centres for COVID-19
testing.
At the entrance, although four guards were deployed, only one was standing in a corner wearing a disposable mask but no other protective gear. The other three were inside a booth, playing cards. The gates were open for all and no one was checked for their identification. Just outside the gate, auto rickshaws lined up and a crowd was gathered near a makeshift photo-copier facility.
There were no arrangements to check the temperatures of people entering the venue and no hand-sanitising facility either.
Inside the hospital, no social distancing was being followed and still many people, including children, were without masks. Hospital employees had set up various booths, cordoned off with a waist-level rope and a single guard for security. These booths were for people who wanted to either get tested for COVID-19, get some medicines from the dispensary, or consult a physician.
People who wanted to get tested for COVID-19 were referred to another queue, where again COVID-19 protocols were not being followed. Also, no information was given, unless specifically asked, as to which test would be conducted (antigen or RT-PCR), or where, when, and how the test results could be accessed. Information about the website where the results would be declared three days later was stuck on a non-descript pole.
Curiously, on reaching the booth where samples were to be taken for RT-PCR testing, there was no attendant. Visitors had to wait for almost an hour and ask hospital staff to call the attendant at least 5 times. By this time, the queue of people waiting to get their samples collected had grown from two to
nine.
Among them, a resident of Sector 122 in Noida, who had been waiting for at least 40 minutes, had a high fever and a constant cough. Another visitor had come from a nearby village via public transport with her pre-teen daughter and a toddler to get tested since her fever had not broken in over a week and she had constant body ache. Both children were not wearing a mask and the woman herself had loosely covered her face with a dupatta.
Multiple hospital staff, including doctors, security guards, and other support staff did not respond to repeated calls for
clarification.