Inaction and confusion in handling COVID-19 cases had resulted in the death of a COVID-19 patient, said Su. Venkatesan, MP, here on Monday.
A 65-year-old patient from Palanganatham had jumped off the first floor of a COVID Care Centre in Tirupparankundram after reportedly complaining about lack of basic amenities on Sunday night. Later he died at Government Rajaji Hospital. “Despite many shortcomings having been pointed out, officials do not understand the gravity of the situation,” the MP said in a statement.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP said that he had been flagging the need to drastically increase the number of testings in Madurai district since the beginning of June. “We are in such a pathetic situation only because of not increasing the testings,” he said.
The MP recalled that he had impressed upon Special Monitoring Officer B. Chandra Mohan to keep 3,500 beds ready immediately as the district was poised for a 7.9% growth in number of COVID-19 cases. In a subsequent letter to Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, the MP had sought 4,500 beds in the district. “Instead of taking up the works on a war-footing, the plea was met with a lackadaisical attitude,” Mr. Venkatesan said, adding the number of positive patients in the district was rising by 200 every day.
Ground reality
The ground reality is that patients had to wait for hours together to get treatment and there was no proper guidance and chaos prevailed. For instance, lunch was prepared for 200 patients at the Covid Care Centre in Tirupparankundram on Sunday, but later in the evening an additional 600 patients were sent there without arranging additional manpower. “This led to lot of confusion and patients could not get access even to drinking water. It was under this situation that the man had attempted to end his life,” the MP said.
Majority of the patients were in severe stress as they face much hardship, solely because of the irresponsibility of the administration. He wondered whether these hardships were discussed at the review meeting conducted by Revenue Minister R.B. Udhayakumar.