HC asks state to provide financial aid to wife of DHH pharmacist who died of Covid

Cuttack: Orissa high court has set aside a single judge's order that rejected the case of a pharmacist at a govt hospital who died due to Covid-19 infection, to declare him as a ‘Covid Warrior'.
According to case records, Ashok Kumar Patro was a pharmacist at the district headquarters hospital, Rayagada, since July 1, 2020. He was diagnosed with Covid-19 and was hospitalised on Sept 3, 2020. He died on Sept 11.
Subsequently, his wife, E Meerabai Patro, applied for financial assistance mandated for ‘Covid warriors'. However, on June 22, 2021, the state authorities rejected the claim on the grounds that the deceased was drafted for routine duty at the drug distribution centre. Meerabai challenged the govt order in the HC the same year.
A single judge held that since the deceased was not drafted for Covid management-related duties, he did not come under the purview of the guidelines, and hence he could not be declared as a ‘Covid warrior'. Meerabai then filed an appeal against the order issued on Feb 8, 2024.
However, in the order uploaded on Wednesday, the division bench of Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Justice B P Routray stated that even if the contention of the state authorities is accepted, that the deceased was deployed for routine duty at the drug distribution centre, his exposure to Covid-19 patients cannot be ruled out in the course of discharging his duties. He had to distribute drugs/medicines to different persons either at the distribution centre or by going to different places of the hospital, including the patient wards.
"Therefore, his exposure to direct contact with Covid-19 patients in the course of discharging his duties as a pharmacist is very much probable. So, looking from either way, particularly when the chief district medical & public health officer, Rayagada, has certified that the deceased was drafted for Covid-19 related work, we find merit in the contention of the petitioner to get financial assistance," the bench observed.
"The single judge failed to appreciate the duty discharged and assigned to the deceased before his infection and death, and the impugned judgment is set aside accordingly," the bench further observed, while directing the state authorities to provide financial assistance to Meerabai as per the finance department resolution dated Aug 4, 2020.