Ghazipur district administration went on a high alert after discovering that more than 40 COVID-19 patients had gone ‘missing’.
These patients were neither found in hospitals, nor in home isolation, prompting authorities to launch a drive to trace them down.
The shocking development comes at a time when the number of COVID-19 patients in Ghazipur district has spiked to 1,138, including 70 new cases on Thursday. The death toll in the district stands at 10.
Later, district authorities claimed that these patients provided incorrect phone numbers and addresses to the labs where they got their swab tested.
In a letter to additional district magistrate (ADM), Additional Chief Medical Officer Dr KK Verma said that at least 42 coronavirus positive people were missing in the district.
“During testing, several people gave their swab samples. They were made to fill in details like phone numbers, addresses etc. After 42 of them tested positive, Health department officials tried to contact them on phone and also in person at their homes, when it surfaced that the phone numbers and addresses were incorrect. It has now become difficult for us to track them,” the ACMO wrote and sought help from the district administration in tracking them.
It came to light that these 42 persons have been missing for the last 15 days but were noticed by the CMO office only after the number of patients spiked recently.
