Chhapra: At a time when Bihar is witnessing a second wave of the deadly coronavirus pandemic and people are being advised to adhere to appropriate COVID behaviour, an incident of alleged medical apathy from Chhapra Sadar hospital has come to the fore. The crisis over the shortage of COVID medicine namely Azithromycin continued in Bihar with a patient alleging that the hospital asked him to arrange the drug from chemist shops located outside.
The hospital, which allegedly has an insufficient stock of COVID-19 medicines and drugs, is asking infected patients to arrange medicines for themselves, a patient said.
The COVID positive patient, identified as Dilip Bharti Manjhi, confirmed that he was told by the hospital administration to collect Azithromycin. Reports suggest that the medicine kit given by the hospital did not have Azithromycin and he was also asked by the health officials to isolate himself at his home.
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Denying the allegations, Civil Surgeon Janardhan Prasad Sukumar said, "If a person has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, he/she should be immediately isolated. Nothing has come to my knowledge that a COVID infected patient has been asked to arrange medicine from the medical shop located outside."
"COVID patients are being kept in home isolation. If a person is in quarantine, how can he or she go out to get the medicine? All the medicine packets are being manufactured under our vigilance and we are monitoring the situation on a daily basis," he added.
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The incident has triggered panic among the residents of Chhapra as the roaming of COVID infected patients in the local market has put them at a higher risk of contracting the virus.
With 24 fresh fatalities, the death toll due to coronavirus increased to 1675 on Thursday in Bihar, where with 6133 new infections the tally of COVID cases has crossed the three lakh mark. Patna continues to be the worst affected district followed by Bhagalpur, Gaya, Muzaffarpur and Begusarai.
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