COVID +ve patient made to wait 28 hours due to lack of vehicle

Tiruvannamalai

The elderly woman, who has been staying with eight relatives in a one-room house in Annanagar, felt uneasy and had herself tested at the Tiruvannamalai government medical college hospital three days ago. At 8 am on Monday, the hospital called and informed her that she was positive and that an ambulance would soon come to take her to the hospital.

The woman stayed in the house along with the relatives, including two small children, but the ambulance turned up only at noon on Tuesday. When asked the Deputy Director of Health Services, the official said they had only three vehicles to pick up patients from across the district. So, such delays were inevitable, the official added.

Top medical officials said they would ensure that such incidents were not repeated.

Two succumb in Vellore hospital
Two men aged above 60, including one from city, succumbed to COVID-19 virus at a private hospital in the early hours of Tuesday. Officials said that the victims – one aged 69 from Tiruvannamalai and another aged 64 years from Chennai – were admitted more than a week ago after testing positive. On Monday night both patients developed increased breathlessness and died in the early hours of Tuesday. As they were from Chennai and Tiruvannamalai, their deaths would be notified to those districts, and would be included in the death toll of the respective districts, officials said. The hospital has about 50 patients under treatment for coronavirus infection, officials added.