Wagah immigration lets Indian embassy staff in with deadly Covid variant

LAHORE: In what may qualify as criminal negligence on part of the immigration department at Wagah Border, at least 12 Indian embassy staff were allowed into the country despite one of them testing Covid positive with Indian variant in the midst of the incessant Covid rally in India with numerous variants causing mayhem indiscriminately, ARY News reported.

The healthcare team in Punjab conducted the tests of the Indian envoy out of which a wife of a staffer, Manju, came positive. However, despite the infection case emergence, the immigration staff, instead of sending them back to India, allowed them into the country and recommended a 14-day quarantine at the embassy.

It may be noted that India itself has ordered tighter surveillance of a rare fungal disease hitting COVID-19 patients, officials said earlier this week, piling pressure on hospitals struggling with the world’s highest number of daily infections of the novel coronavirus.

READ: India battles rash of “black fungus” cases hitting COVID-19 patients

Mucormycosis or “black fungus” usually infects people whose immune system has been compromised, causing blackening or discoloration over the nose, blurred or double vision, chest pain, breathing difficulties and coughing blood.

Doctors believe that the use of steroids to treat severe COVID-19 could be causing the rash of cases because those drugs reduce immunity and push up sugar levels.

Health Secretary Lav Agarwal said in a letter to state governments that mucormycosis had emerged as a new challenge for COVID-19 patients on steroid therapy and those with pre-existing diabetes.