Coronavirus | COVID-19 patients segregated on basis of religion at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, according to reports

The State Health Department has rebutted the claims, stating that patients are kept in different wards based on their medical conditions.

A municipal worker sprays disinfectant on his colleague after they cremated the body of a man who died due to COVID-19 at a crematorium in Ahmedabad on April 12, 2020.

The Ahmedabad Civil Hospital has reportedly segregated wards of COVID-19 patients along religious lines. The Health Department, however, has strongly rebutted the reports.

Normally, at civil hospitals, wards are segregated as per gender: male and female.

Officials of the hospital are tight-lipped after local media reported the issue, but insiders said the decision was taken after a large number of cases were reported from a cluster of a religious gathering in Delhi and their contacts in minority dominated pockets of the city.

In a tweet, the Health Department strongly rebutted the report. Patients were kept in different wards based on their medical condition, severity of the symptoms and age, purely based on the advice of treating doctors, it said.

As per the data, more than 50% of the total cases from Ahmedabad have emerged from select clusters of minority pockets in the city.

A doctor who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that certain patients from the majority community were not comfortable being in the same ward with patients of the minority community.

“After some patients complained, it was decided to segregate them on temporary basis,” the doctor said.