A video allegedly showing body of a COVID-19 patient lying in the veranda of the isolation ward of the Udalguri Civil Hospital in Assam has gone viral in the social media.
The video was shot by a COVID-19 patient undergoing treatment at the isolation ward of the Udalguri Civil Hospital, Assam.
The patient, who filmed the video claimed that the body of the deceased COVID-19 patient was brought to the hospital in the wee hours of Thursday.
He further claimed that the body was left abandoned at the veranda of the isolation ward of the hospital for several hours.
The body was allegedly left abandoned near a toilet of the hospital.
“About 14 patients including females are being treated in the isolation ward near where the body was left abandoned,” the person who filmed the video alleged.
“The body, wrapped in a black plastic, was left abandoned on a stretcher near the toilet,” he added.
After complaints being lodged by the other patients and attendants, the hospital authorities shifted the ‘abandoned’ body for cremation.
Speaking to this correspondent, Superintendent of Udalguri Civil Hospital, Dr Sudip Ranjan Dey said: “The dead body was that of a COVID-19 positive patient which was shifted to the morgue on Thursday morning.”
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Notably, the Union health ministry’s guidelines on management of the body of a COVID-19 casualty say, “Place the dead body in leak-proof plastic body bag. The exterior of the body bag can be decontaminated with 1% hypochlorite and the dead bodies should be stored in morgue with cold chambers maintained at approximately 4°C.”.
“The bodies should have been kept in the mortuary as it puts the life of other patients at isolation at stake,” said a patient of the isolation ward.