Chhatrapur: As many as 20 patients have COVID-19 symptoms in Ganjam, if a report sent by drug house owners of the district to the local drug inspector is anything to go by.
Ganjam collector Vijay Amruta Kulange had Wednesday made it mandatory for all private pharmacists (drug houses) of the district to maintain a record of addresses and contact numbers of the persons buying medicines from their shops.
Accordingly, the drug house owners have starting collecting all the data and have been submitting their reports to the drug inspector.
From their reports, it is understood that as many as 20 patients have symptoms akin to those of COVID-19. Of them, 15 are suffering from respiratory related ailments and the rest five have flu.
While four of these patients belong to Berhampur and Kabisuryanagar each, three each belong to Beguniapada and Purusottampur, two from Hinjli and one each from Kodala, Kinisi, Rangeilunda and Chhatrapur.
A total of 1,547 patients or their relatives purchased medicine from 205 medicine stores in the district Friday.
Believing that many patients are purchasing medicine from the medicine stores themselves or through their relatives to avoid coronavirus test, collector Kulange had made it mandatory for all the drug houses to submit their reports to the drug inspector.
The drug inspector has been asked to submit the report to the district public health authority which will inspect the report and send it to DRDA PD or COVID cell at Chhatrapur for necessary action.
PNN
