A south Calcutta resident went to MR Bangur Hospital on Friday morning to get himself tested for Covid-19 and found a hospital employee calling out names of people and handing them their swab sample test reports.

At least three people who had tested positive for Covid-19 collected their reports and one of them headed to a tea stall, the resident, a businessman in his 40s, told The Telegraph while narrating his experience at the government-run hospital.

“... positive. Has the candidate come?” the person in a PPE (personal protective equipment) asked while calling out a name. A middle-aged woman from the crowd stepped forward and said she was the candidate and took the report from the person. He then called out another name in a similar manner. That report, too, was positive, the businessman said.

“I counted at least four of the 10 names he had called out were positive. Three of them collected their reports; the fourth one had not turned up.... The man did not even ask them why they were collecting the reports. Even after a person who had tested positive for Covid-19 collected the report, he did not tell the person whether to stay in home isolation or how to return home.

“I was standing near the crowd in front of the old emergency ward… the moment I saw a Covid-19 positive patient going to collect her report, I moved and stood at a distance. It was around 11am…. I have to meet a lot of people because of my business… for the past couple of days I had a mild cold. A friend of mine who works at the hospital suggested I get myself tested for Covid-19.

“Around 10.30 am, I asked my driver to park the car inside the hospital and went to get the test done. A doctor asked me if I had any disease and when he heard I have diabetes and hypertension, he prescribed some medicines and told me to get them from the pharmacy before giving my swab sample.

Long wait: A queue of customers outside the Vivekananda Road branch of a bank, in north Calcutta, on Tuesday. Banks are restricting entry of customers as a precaution against Covid-19. Pradip Sanyal

“While I was returning from the pharmacy, I saw the hospital employee calling out the names of people from a list. There were at least 50 people, some waiting for their results and some like me waiting to get tested. Once the man had finished, he moved inside and around the same time, it was my turn to give my swab sample.

“When the process was completed, I asked how I would know the result. The person who collected my swab sample told me I would have to collect the report from the hospital after three days.

“As I was leaving in my car, I saw the woman who had collected her report (positive) drink water from a plastic jug at a tea stall adjacent to the hospital. I saw her ordering tea. I shouted at her that she had tested positive and asked what she was doing.

“The woman walked towards my car… I got scared and rolled up the window. My driver shouted at the tea stall owner that the woman had tested positive for Covid-19. The group of people at the stall immediately moved away. I then asked my driver to take me back home,” the businessman said.

A health official said the earlier policy was to inform the health department.

An official of MR Bangur Hospital said Swasthya Bhavan employees working in the Covid tracking cell used to call up patients and alert them about their results. “Now, the health department has decided to hand over results to family members of a patient. It is difficult to inform so many people on the phone because of the rising number of positive patients.”