Difficult times have brought out the worse in humans. An example of this was witnessed when three COVID-19 infected patients were forced to travel in a “garbage truck” for their journey to the hospital.
The hair-raising incident took place in the Vizianagaram district of Andhra Pradesh on 1st August and was captured as a recording.
The video of the incident has got viral on all social media platforms with users sharing the depressing fate of the patients who were treated in an inhuman way.
It showed three people, who are apparently COVID-19 positive, climbing into a truck in the Nellimarla town of AP. This urged the police officials to take action and investigate the authenticity of the matter.
The sick patients had to settle with this as the ambulance couldn’t reach their home even after their family members had called the vehicle to shift them to the hospital. All three belonged to the same family.
On Wednesday, they had undergone tests for detecting COVID-19 and received their positive test results on Friday. The neighbors ranged the ambulance service on phone number 108, informing them of the condition of the three locals of the area and requested to shift them to the hospital in the vehicle. When the ambulance did not arrive, the locals took up the mission and brought the truck from Nellimarla Nagar Panchayat.
The officials of the area ordered an investigation concerning the matter. Gayatri Devi, the Primary Health Centre’s medical officer claimed that the ambulance was on its way and sent as soon as they received the call from the area residents but the locals had transferred the patients in the truck before the aiding vehicle could reach the location.
According to Nellimarla Nagar Panchayat Commissioner J. R. Appala Naidu, shockingly, the truck used by the locals to shift the patients were functioning as a vehicle to carry Sodium Hypochlorite along with different items required to bury deceased coronavirus patients.
Vizianagaram District Medical and Health Officer DrRamanaKumari said she had ordered a probe into the incident.
Former chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu criticized the ruling body over its management and care for COVID patients, questioning them for not treating patients as humans should be.
The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) President wrote on Twitter, “Appalling! Three Covid-19 patients in BC Colony, Jarjapupeta in VizianagaramDist were taken to the hospital in a garbage vehicle. Don’t know about coronavirus, but the helpless patients might contract other dangerous diseases. Why are they not being treated like humans?”
