Flood scare for 66 Covid patients in SMIMER facility

Surat: About 66 Covid-19 patients admitted at the ground floor of the Covid facility at SMIMER’s multi-level parking in Surat, could not believe their eyes when they had to wade through water near their beds on Saturday evening.
Not understanding what caused the flood when there was no rainfall, the patients were in a quandary as the entire floor was flooded. One patient even made a video of the flooded floor inside the patients’ room and posted it on social media which soon became viral.
Netizens blasted the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) claiming that it was flooded owing to rain water. SMC, which had converted the multilevel parking at the SMIMER hospital into a Covid facility to accommodate more positive patients, clarified that it was a leaking water pipeline issue.
"Water leaking from a pipeline entered into the ground floor of the Covid facility and it was soon fixed. The issue has been resolved,” Banchhanidhi Pani, Municipal Commissioner, Surat, told TOI.
Congress leader from Surat and municipal councillor, Aslam Cyclewala, however, said that the ‘flood’ inside the Covid-19 facility only pointed at the civic body’s apathy towards the patients and the way they are being ‘treated’. “SMC makes big claims about how they are providing facilities to Covid patients, but reality is different,” Cyclewala told TOI.
The flood video was shared by many Congressmen including state president Amit Chavda on social media with jibes made at the state government’s handling of Covid crisis. Party leader trained their guns at the Vijay Rupani government over “fake Gujarat model”.
“See the condition of ward for patients of #Covid_19 in #BJP-ruled Surat Municipal Corporation hospital in @narendramodi's #Fake_Gujarat_model. @vijayrupanibjp @Nitinbhai_Patel please tell us, was this your preparation to defeat #Covid_19?” Chavda had tweeted on Sunday along with a 30-second clip.
Surat city has recorded over 4,200 Covid-19 cases so far.