As many as 32,903 persons tested positive for COVID-19 in Thanjavur district so far and as many as 27,637 were discharged after recovering while 4,891 are undergoing treatment in the district.

While 28 persons died in the past three days in the district, the number of patients approaching the Thanjavur medical college has been increasing day by day.

According to official sources, there are 1,250 oxygen supported beds available in the medical college but all the beds have been occupied by the patients and so the new patients are not allowed as there was no availability of beds.

In such a backdrop, several ambulances were seen waiting in the medical college premises with patients supported by oxygen.

This created a tense moment among the people, patients and their attendants.

The relatives who accompanied the patients had to wait for several hours for admission.

“We got admission for my uncle after five hours of wait in the hospital premises. Till we could get admission, we had to wait in the ambulance supported by oxygen”, said Pandiarajan from Orathanadu.

He said there were over 10 such ambulances waiting for the admission since Friday night and one by one got admitted after five to seven hours of wait.

Meanwhile, the medical college authorities said, the hospital has 1,250 oxygen supported beds and all are full.

“We see the patients from private hospitals during the eleventh hour and this results in a delay in admission,” the official said.