COVID allegedly threatened to imprison a relative of a COVID patient who had come to Uttar Pradesh seeking medicine amid a growing shortage of COVID drug in the country. It is alleged that the chief medical officer of Gautam Buddha Nagar threatened the police with action if he came to the office asking for medicine.
The woman and her relatives went to the CMO’s office to ask for Remdeciver, which is used to treat COVID. According to videos circulating on social media, the three women were seen shaking hands with CMO Deepak Ohri and asking him to give her husbands life-saving medicine
But the CMO said there was no medicine at present and it would be given when it was received. The woman alleged that the CMO threatened to send her to jail if she told him that she would come back for medicine. The husband of the accused woman is undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Noida.
The woman told the media that others who came to the CMO’s office with an application for the medicine did not receive the medicine.
Although the district administration and the CMO claim that there is no shortage of medicines or hospital beds in Gautam Buddha Nagar, the incident reveals that many people in the district are struggling for medicines including remdesivir.
Gautam Buddha Nagar, near Delhi in western Uttar Pradesh, is one of the most COVID affected districts in the state.
Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aditya Nath has directed the police to close hospitals that continue to tell the media about oxygen shortages and deport patients for lack of oxygen as the COVID crisis continues.