Srinagar: Some of the volunteers who were engaged in a COVID-19 laboratory to ramp up testing in Kashmir have been disengaged by authorities after two weeks of their services, in the middle of the fight against the coronavirus. Their disengagement comes after after controversy erupted over photos on social media showing them resting in the lab.
“Yesterday I was told to go home as my services were not required anymore,” said one of the volunteers who had been working at a lab of the Chest Diseases hospital in Srinagar.
The photos that appeared on social media depicted scenes inside Bio-Safety Lab-3 at Chest Diseases Hospital, where volunteers were seen lying asleep on the floor and on chairs, while wearing their protection gear. The photos were similar to many images that have appeared of health care workers in various countries who have been working day and night to fight Covid-19.
According to an insider, the volunteers had given a huge boost to the amount of testing done at the lab, from less than a hundred samples a day to nearly a thousand a day.
A volunteer said that their photos were taken by a colleague while they were taking a rest inside the lab, after finishing the day’s work. The volunteer said the photos were taken on Friday between 4pm to 7pm.
Head of Department, Microbiology, at CD Hospital, Dr Anjum, could not be reached for comments.
Principal of Government Medical College Srinagar Dr Samia Rashid told Kashmir Reader that it would be better to speak to the Covid-19 nodal officer, Dr Salim Khan, about this matter. Dr Khan, on his part, said it was an internal matter of the microbiology department and he did not have any information about the status of the volunteers working there.
One of the sacked volunteers said that the Srinagar Deputy Commissioner’s office had asked them to resume their duties, but they won’t do so till an apology is tendered to them.
“We are waiting for that. If the apology does not come, we won’t join back. We had come here at the risk of our lives, and we were discredited and disrespected,” the volunteer said.

Junaid Nabi Bazaz