Sri Venkateswara hospital at Tiruvanaikoil in Tiruchy has been treating the COVID positive patients from the locality.

According to residents, they were told that there were four patients undergoing treatment in the hospital and later another group was shifted there from another hospital on Friday evening.

While the residents have been opposing the hospital treating COVID patients as there are several residential colonies located nearby, the management has continued to admit more cases.

“The particular COVID ward of the hospital is located in the vicinity of the residential areas. The windows are kept open and even the patients are in the habit of spitting out and sneezing out through the window which poses a threat to the people residing in the entire area”, said Siva, the CPI functionary who led the protest on Saturday. Siva said that on Friday evening, few patients were seen coming out of the ward and having tea and dinner from outside. “This creates panic among the residents and we approached the hospital management to complain but they were not ready to meet us”, Siva said.

No options left, the residents staged a protest in front of the hospital demanding to shift the patients to the GH. Srirangam police rushed to spot and advised the protesters to submit a petition with the district collector.

Meanwhile, the police held talks with the hospital management and sought the CCTV footage to study whether the patients came out of the ward. “If we found any such patient coming outside the hospital, we would initiate strict action”, said a police officer. Later, based on the assurance, the agitating members withdrew their protest.