Body of COVID-19 patient kept in verandah of isolation ward of Udalguri Civil Hospital

A CORRESPONDENT

TANGLA: The video of the body of a COVID-19 patient lying in the verandah of the isolation ward of Udalguri Civil Hospital, the only dedicated COVID-19 government facility in Udalguri, has gone viral on social media, inviting the ire of netizens.

An isolation ward patient who shot the video, claimed that the body had been brought in the verandah of the ward in the dead of the night at about 2 am-3 am on Thursday and was lying near the toilet room till morning. "Nearly 14 patients, including females, are being treated in the ward where the body was lying," he said. "The body was kept lying on a stretcher wrapped in a black plastic just near the toilet room which caused anxiety and terror among other patients undergoing treatment in the room," added the patient. The attendant claimed that he had complained to the nurses and hospital staff and everyone and only on Thursday morning it was taken for cremation.

Talking to this correspondent, Superintendent of Udalguri Civil Hospital, Dr. Sudip Ranjan Dey defended the hospital administration and said, "The body was that of a COVID-19 positive patient which warranted that it be kept at the isolation ward and in the morning it was shifted to the morgue."

The Union health ministry's guidelines on management of the body of a COVID-19 casualty say, "Place the dead body in leak-proof plastic body bag. The exterior of the body bag can be decontaminated with 1 per cent hypochlorite and the dead bodies should be stored in morgue with cold chambers maintained at approximately 4°C." "The body should have been kept in the mortuary as it puts the life of other patients in isolation at stake," said another patient of the isolation ward.

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