Bedlam as patients refuse to travel to Covid-19 centre in crowded ambulance

The patients were reluctant to travel together in the ambulance arranged by the district administration, saying they were afraid of contracting a “heavier viral load from other infected persons”.

The government’s new guidelines that every new Covid-19 patient be taken to a Covid Care Centre (CCC), to assess if they need home isolation or hospitalisation, triggered chaos at Vasant Kunj’s B-1 block containment zone on Tuesday night as at least 15 patients refused to visit a CCC at YMCA near Connaught Place, locals and police said.

Many demanded that they should be allowed to remain in home isolation or permitted to hire a private ambulance if their visit to the CCC was mandatory, senior police officers privy to the development said. (Raj K Raj/HT photo)

The patients were reluctant to travel together in the ambulance arranged by the district administration, saying they were afraid of contracting a “heavier viral load from other infected persons”. Many demanded that they should be allowed to remain in home isolation or permitted to hire a private ambulance if their visit to the CCC was mandatory, senior police officers privy to the development said.

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Doctors, however, refuted the residents’ claim that they might contract a more virulent strain by travelling with other infected persons.

“If two Covid positive patients were in close proximity with each other, it will not influence the disease pattern. If the virus is inside a body, then the severity of symptoms will depend on the affected individual’s response to the disease. Mild symptomatic cases will not turn severe merely by coming in contact with a severely symptomatic patient,” Dr Srikant Sharma, senior consultant, medicine, Moolchand Hospital, said.

The order directing the mandatory screening of all Covid patients at CCCs was issued by lieutenant-governor Anil Baijal on Monday and has been opposed by the Delhi government.

On Wednesday, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said they would request the L-G to withdraw the order, because sending each and every patient to a CCC would result in chaos.

Patients and their families started objecting to the mandatory visits around 9pm, when the ambulance reached the containment zone and all patients were asked to get in. When the resistance continued for more than an hour, district officials asked local police to intervene.

Officers from the Vasant Kunj North police station reached the containment zone and requested patients to comply, and warned them of legal action if they failed to do so. “Even then, only five patients got into the ambulance and visited the CCC by around 10.30pm,” Ingit Pratap Singh, additional deputy commissioner of police (southwest) said.

On the other hand, patients and their family members said some of the positive patients were elderly and required attendants.They also pointed out that none of the 15 patients was symptomatic.

“My husband is 78-years-old, weak and has had a knee replacement. He needs help walking. I was not comfortable with sending him in the ambulance, along with other infected persons as it might expose him to a higher viral load. The doctor who called us insisted that he should be sent to the YMCA CCC despite us requesting him to either allow us home isolation or to arrange a private ambulance on our own,” the wife of an elderly patient, who was shifted to a private hospital by his family members in the night itself, said.

The father of another patient, a 31-year-old chemist who was among the five to visit the CCC, said, “No medical team had come along with the ambulance. As the ambulance looked shabby and unhygienic, we were reluctant to send our son in it. But when the police officers warned us of legal action, we had no choice but to comply.”

Some patients also claimed they were waiting for the ambulance since afternoon and it only arrived by 9pm.

“The positive patients included young women. Their families refused to send them off in the night,” a police officer, who had intervened in the matter said.

The district magistrate (DM) of New Delhi was not available for comment as calls and text messages sent to her remained unanswered.

The local residents’ welfare association (RWA) distanced itself from the incident and its officials refused comment.

On Wednesday, 14 patients were taken to the CCC in two ambulances arranged by the district administration. “The doctors examined us and asked us to remain in home isolation. Seven patients were sent in each ambulance. All of us returned home and have isolated ourselves,” a 46-year-old patient, who along with her husband and 21-year-old daughter had tested positive for Covid-19, said.