Following rumours on social media platforms that two COVID-19 patients died while waiting outside Tiruppur Government Medical College Hospital, officials from the hospital and the district administration on Monday denied that such deaths had occurred.
Hospital authorities said that the two patients – a 65-year-old man and a 40-year-old woman – were referred to the Tiruppur Government Medical College Hospital after 11 p.m. on Sunday from private treatment centres in an advanced stage of infection. While one of them was dead on arrival, the other died within 30 minutes of admission, according to the authorities.
With the hospital grappling with shortage of beds for patients, some private hospitals have been allegedly referring patients in critical condition without inquiring about the vacancy in beds, the hospital officials claimed. As of Monday, Tiruppur Government Medical College Hospital had 281 beds earmarked for COVID-19 patients, out of which 156 are oxygen beds. About 45 additional oxygen beds will be set up by this week, according to the officials.
Officials in the district administration said that District Collector K. Vijayakarthikeyan held a meeting with Dean of the medical college hospital Valli Sathyamoorthy and confirmed that the deaths were not due to waiting outside the hospital.
