News Desk :
MA Hossain, 32, who works for a local newspaper, received an SMS from Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) on Monday.
According to the SMS, Hossain tested corona positive as he gave his sample for Covid-19 screening on June 17 and the sample was tested at the National Institute of Laboratory Medicine and Referral Centre on the same day.
Hossain was advised to contact DGHS hotline for further advice, if needed, cited the SMS.
Hossain said, “Neither did I go to Dhaka nor gave a sample for Covid-19 testing, but I received the SMS in which it stated that I was Covid-19 positive.”
Without providing samples to conduct Covid-19 testing, people are receiving texts on their cellphones telling them that they are Covid-19 positive.
Similarly on June 16, Siddik Howlader, a resident of Madaripur Municipality received a similar text on his phone.
According to the SMS, Siddik tested Covid-19 positive. Then the Health Division went to seek out Siddik for placing him in isolation.
Siddik said, “I never even gave a sample. I am in good health. I do not know who gave my number and now the administration is searching for me.”
Experts said many are receiving this kind of false messages, which are not only highly problematic and unacceptable but causes suffering to the recipients and the patients they were meant for.
People who are receiving such texts without providing any samples are facing problems in society and by their neighbours. On the other hand, patients who are actually Covid-19 positive won’t know their test results – in-spite of giving samples – since the text message was sent to the wrong number.
Mushtaq Hossain, adviser of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control, and Research (IEDCR), said: “It is not acceptable. These kinds of false SMS and false reports have various negative impacts.”
Mustaq said: “Such type of mistakes are happening due to shortage of manpower and too much workload. And lack of supervision is also one of the reasons.”
“I think less work is better then wrong work. Government should appoint more manpower here. Till then all the employees, related to such work, should do their work slowly and accurately,” he said.
According to the DGHS, in Bangladesh, a total of 119,198 people tested positive so far while 1,545 people died after being infected.
