Customs official falsely claims man coronavirus infected, discloses ID
A top official of the Benapole Customs in Jashore today posted on Facebook the photograph, identity and address of a passenger of Bandhan Express from Kolkata, saying the passenger was infected with coronavirus.
Later, after the passenger was cleared by health officials, the customs official edited his post to reflect the update, but did not remove the identifying documents. He, however, removed the post later in the day.
This was a violation of passenger privacy and resulted in a strong reaction from health officials.
The post also generated rumours and panic on social media.
Breaching the privacy of any passenger is not only unethical, but also a violation of the service rule on maintaining secrecy which is mandatory for all government officials, IEDCR Director Prof Meerjady Sabrina Flora said today.
"From the beginning, we have been asking all government officials concerned to be careful about the privacy of anyone suspected of being infected. During such a crisis, many fail to maintain this…," the director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) told The Daily Star.
She said that if there were cases of infections, the protocol was to inform the high-ups concerned or contact the IEDCR.
The IEDCR is the only organisation in the country under the health ministry which has the capacity to test suspected coronavirus cases.
As part of the countrywide surveillance system, the IEDCR collects sample from any suspected patients reported by local health authorities.
After testing the sample, the IEDCR makes the result public.
So far, the IEDCR has tested 77 samples and found all to be coronavirus negative.
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