Patiala hospital sees 25 deaths in a day, Punjab toll crosses 1K mark

Karam Prakash

Tribune News Service

Patiala, August 22

As many as 25 Covid deaths were reported at Government Rajindra Hospital, a tertiary healthcare institute, in the past 24 hours. This was the highest daily death count at the hospital.

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The increasing death rate at the hospital has already raised alarm bells for the authorities and the state Health Department. Till Saturday morning, 216 Covid deaths were recorded at the institute. The authorities said 286 positive and nine suspected patients were undergoing treatment at the hospital presently.

Dr Paras Pandove, Medical Superintendent, said only serious patients were admitted in the Covid ward, and therefore, the mortality rate was a bit higher. He said, “Only level-2 and level-3 patients are admitted to the hospital. Therefore, the mortality rate is high. Besides, serious patients from other districts of the state are referred to the hospital, which has resulted in a high casualty rate.”

Meanwhile, chaos was witnessed at the mortuary of the hospital when family members of a deceased had to allegedly wait for 12 hours to get the body.

It has been learnt that there was a delay in shifting the bodies from the Covid ward to the mortuary due to a high number of casualties.

A family member of the deceased said, “We got a call around 1 am from the ward that our family member had died of Covid. It’s 2 pm but we still haven’t received the body for cremation.”

Sources said the Deputy Commissioner had already issued directions that a body should be shifted from the isolation ward to the mortuary within two hours. Officials at the mortuary claimed there was a strike by marshals who shift the bodies from the isolation ward to the mortuary, which led to the delay. Dr Vishal Chopra, nodal officer, Covid ward, said, “Around eight deaths took place from 11.30 pm to 6 am, which delayed the shifting of bodies. However, I will look into if there was a delay of 12 hours.”

Patiala Civil Surgeon Dr Harish Malhohtra said, “We have asked officials at the hospital to hire more marshals so that there is no delay in shifting the bodies.”

Meanwhile, with 1,320 cases reported in the past 24 hours, the state count of Covid cases has reached 40,643. Besides, the state witnessed 45 deaths, taking the total number of casualties to 1,036.

Among the worst-affected districts, Ludhiana topped with 360 cases, followed by Patiala (177), SAS Nagar (164), Amritsar (92), Kapurthala (74), Muktsar (68), Sangrur (47) and Jalandhar (46). Apart from that, 336 patients are on oxygen support and 49 are critical and are on ventilator support.

Randhawa tests +ve

Jails Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa has tested positive for Covid. Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh tweeted about the development. He said, “My Cabinet colleague and Cooperation & Jails Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa has tested positive for #Covid19. I wish him a speedy recovery.”

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