Distressing visuals from a government medical college in Etawah, Uttar Pradesh show heaps of garbage right outside a Covid-19 ward in the hospital.
The video, posted on Twitter by an NDTV journalist, depicts the deplorable state of the facilities provided to the patients in the Covid-19 ward. The person recording the video says that two washrooms – one for men and one for women – are shared between 40 people. The area around the drinking water filter is also unhygienic. “This will make our health worse. It feels like we have been sent here to die,” the person recording the video said.
R Ganapathy Raju, an officer with the Indian Administrative Services posted in Etawah, said that after the video went viral on social media, authorities have been dictated to have the area cleaned twice a day. “We have instructed the district authorities to have the ward cleaned twice in a day,” the IAS officer said (video above). The patients also complained about not getting their meals on time. We have asked the district collector to take care of this.”
Another video from a coronavirus quarantine centre in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, showed that the residents had biscuit packets and water bottles thrown towards them which they had to collect by reaching out through a gate.
After the video began to be widely circulated on social media, District Magistrate Prabhu N Singh took cognisance of the matter and fixed the facilities after inspection. “The chief development officer has been instructed to fix responsibility for the disorderly distribution of food and water at the quarantine facility,” Singh said (video above).
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