PESHAWAR: Coronavirus on Saturday claimed 12 more lives in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa amid the boycott of contact tracing and sample collection by the health department’s rapid response teams over the denial of monthly stipend for more than a year.

The RRTs are tasked with collecting samples from suspected Covid-19 cases for investigation and tracing of the contacts of patients in the province.

The doctors have expressed concern over the development and feared the boycott of duty by the RRT members would adversely impact the province’s efforts to stem the spread of the virus.

They demanded the immediate payment of dues to the teams for the continued effective response to coronavirus.

The province recorded 12 Covid-19 related deaths and 421 cases on Saturday.

Health dept official promises payments from tomorrow

Of the deaths, seven were reported in Peshawar, three in Mardan and one each in Swabi and Abbottabad.

The province’s tally of deaths from the virus reached 6,194, while the cases and active cases totalled 214,698 and 10,806 respectively, said a health department report issued here.

Meanwhile, the Provincial Doctors’ Association said in a statement that the finance department had released Rs900 million for Covid-related activities in the province, including the payment of stipend to doctors, paramedics and epidemiologists engaged for the purpose.

It, however, said the promised stipend hadn’t been paid to those health workers for the last 13 months.

The PDA said the boycott of Covid-related duties by the RRTs would adversely impact on the tracing of the contacts of the confirmed Covid-19 cases and their investigation and therefore,their dues should be cleared without delay to ensure effective fight against coronavirus.

It said the teams were deployed across the province by the department to report suspected Covid-19 cases to the respective district health officers and take swabs from them before sending them to the lab for investigation using international protocols.

The association said 112 health workers, including 71 doctors, had so far died of coronavirus in hospitals but the government had given the Shuhada Package of compensation to the heirs of only 10 of them.

It said the RRTs totalled 280 and had three members each and that all those workers hadn’t received their stipends for the last 13 months.

Officials in the health department said theRRTs played an important role in the fight against Covid-19 in the province as through those field workers, the authorities knew about the trend of the geographical spread of the virus and ordered corrective measures in collaboration with the district health offices.

They said the teams were also tasked with notifying suspected Covid-19 cases with travel history to other districts through the provincial detection and response team for timely investigation in the relevant areas and maintaining close liaison with the respective isolation and quarantine centres for new cases to be included in the ‘line list’.

The officials said the teams also assessed the condition of suspected cases, decided between their home isolation and movement to the high dependency or isolation units and shared information regarding their condition and tests to the relevant authorities.

They said the government had announced Rs4,500 monthly stipend for team leader (doctor), Rs3,500 for member (epidemiologist) and Rs2,500 for member (technician) along with Rs500 additional payment for data entry through a mobile app.

Also, the Young Doctors’ Association expressed concern on the denial of stipend to RRTs.

In a statement, it said the provincial government was spending huge amount on prevention and management of Covid-19 and the teams of vital importance as far as detection, contact tracing and sample collection was concerned.

The YDA said a halt to stipend payment to health workers would adversely affect the campaign against the virus, which had been spreading fast in the province for the last one month.

It requested the government to ensure that the health workers get their unpaid amount at the earliest so they could resume work crucial to know about the quantum of the disease by timely investigation the suspects and isolate the positive ones from the general population.

When contacted, director-general (health services) Dr Niaz Mohammad said the health department had approved funds for payments to the RRT members and would release them Monday for disbursement.

“Our accounts section has checked all claims of dues and the finance section will release Rs110 million on Monday after verification,” he said.

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2022