J&K health authorities bar doctors from speaking to media on Covid-19

With doctors speaking out publicly about the shortage of health infrastructure and medicines amid a huge surge in Covid-19 positive cases and deaths, health authorities in Kashmir on Thursday directed its staff to desist from media interactions.

While citing the reason, a circular issued by Director Health Services Kashmir, Dr Mushtaq Ahmad Rather, asked Chief Medical Officers/Medical Superintendents/Block Medical Officers of Kashmir division to issue instructions to all the staff under their administrative domain “to desist from media interaction.”

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The circular claims that “contradictory and confusing messages are being circulated, which misinforms the public and creates unnecessary and avoidable panic.”

The officers have been asked to initiate “strict disciplinary action” against staffers found interacting with the media and “report of any disregard of these instructions”.

The circular was issued in the backdrop of doctors and health care workers speaking out publicly about the dearth of ICU beds, oxygen and other essential medicines in the valley.

A similar warning was issued by Health authorities last year in April when the Covid-19 pandemic had just erupted.