Monkeys steal Covid blood samples in Meerut, trigger panic

In a bizarre incident, a group of monkeys on Friday attacked a lab technician at Meerut Medical College and ran away with coronavirus test samples from. In a video tweeted by a journalist, the monkeys snatched away the swab kits of four patients and escaped before the lab technician could do anything.  Monkeys attacked the […]

by Our Correspondent - May 30, 2020, 5:17 am

In a bizarre incident, a group of monkeys on Friday attacked a lab technician at Meerut Medical College and ran away with coronavirus test samples from. In a video tweeted by a journalist, the monkeys snatched away the swab kits of four patients and escaped before the lab technician could do anything.  Monkeys attacked the lab technician who was carrying samples of suspected Covid-19 patients for testing and ran away after snatching four samples.

The incident occurred inside the premises of the Meerut Medical College. “Monkeys grabbed and fled with the blood samples of four Covid-19 patients who are undergoing treatment … we had to take their blood samples again,” Dr S. K. Garg, a top official at the college, was quoted as saying by Reuters. Authorities said they were not clear if the monkeys had spilled the blood samples, but people living near the leafy campus feared further spread of the virus if the monkeys carried the samples into residential areas.

Garg said it was not clear if the monkeys could contract the coronavirus if they came into contact with infected blood. “No evidence has been found that monkeys can contract the infection,” Garg said. With agency inputs