23 'missing' COVID-19 patients of Hindu Rao hospital found in other hospitals or in home isolation

NEW DELHI: The 23 COVID-19 patients who reportedly went missing from the North Delhi Municipal Corporation-run Hindu Rao Hospital have been traced to other medical facilities or found to be recuperating in home isolation, an official statement said on Monday.

Nineteen of these 23 patients left the hospital even before they could be shifted from emergency area to wards inside the hospital, the statement quoted North Delhi Mayor Jai Prakash as saying.

The remaining four patients were actually discharged after appropriate treatment, but were "erroneously reported as absconding on account of some reporting error", he said.

"It is hereby clarified that all these 23 cases have been tracked right from their movement from the Hindu Rao Hospital (HRH) to either a Delhi government hospital or a central government hospital or a private hospital or found to be recuperating in home isolation," the mayor noted.

Prakash had on Saturday said that at least 23 COVID-19 patients left HRH between April 19 and May 6 without informing the medical facility.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had on Sunday ordered an inquiry into the incident.

HRH, run by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, is the largest civic hospital in the national capital.

The hospital has 250 beds reserved for coronavirus patients and according to the Delhi Corona mobile application, all beds are currently occupied.

The North Delhi mayor on Monday said that on a detailed verification of these cases, it was found that on the first day of opening up of HRH as a dedicated COVID facility, many patients who had come for admission had simultaneously made contacts with other hospitals.

The 19 of the 23 aforementioned patients left HRH from the emergency area even before being shifted to the respective wards because they got oxygenated beds in other hospitals of their choice such as Safdarjung Hospital, Jeevan Mala Hospital, among others, he added.

India has been badly hit by the second wave of the novel coronavirus infection as hospitals in several states/UTs are reeling under a shortage of vaccines, oxygen, drugs and beds.

Delhi on Monday reported 319 more COVID-19 fatalities and 12,651 new infections, the lowest in four weeks, with a positivity rate of 19.10 per cent, the health department said.