Patient escapes from Covid-19 hospital in Mysuru

Jul 25, 2020, 04:15 IST

Mysuru: A 55-year-old infected patient managed to give the guards and personnel at the Mysuru district Covid-19 hospital the slip, and fled the institution on Friday. Deputy commissioner of police AN Prakash Gowda confirmed to TOI that a patient had gone missing from the hospital.
The patient reportedly escaped from the facility around noon, said Gowda. “Since his address has not been clearly recorded, we have mounted a search for him,” he added.
The authorities are understandably concerned, particularly since, if the patient roams around unchecked, it could lead to a spike in the number of infections in the district. The fear was brought home to the district administration and the health department on a day when Mysuru registered its highest single-day spike of 281 cases.
Consequently, the Covid-19 tally in the district has now raced to 2,450, with 99 people having succumbed to the pandemic in Mysuru. Deputy commissioner Abhiram G Sankar said that, of the 281 people confirmed infected on Friday, 50 were from Narasimharaja segment in Mysuru city. “We tested 162 people in the constituency using rapid antigen kits,” he said.
Meanwhile, six more fatalities were reported in Mysuru district, of whom one was a 26-year-old woman, who had a history of respiratory infection, while two succumbed after having been in the hospital for more than ten days. The two other people died within 24 hours after they were hospitalised.
Restrictions lifted
On the other hand, the district administration on Friday lifted the restrictions imposed in localities within the purview of four police stations in northeast of Mysuru city: Mandi, Lashkar, Narasimharaja and Udayagiri. The restrictions had been put in place in order to render the testing process easier.
Meanwhile, the Mandi police station in the heart of Mysuru city was sealed after five cops at the station tested positive for the novel coronavirus, said DCP Gowda. “We have opened a counter outside a station to facilitate filing of complaints,” he added.