More videos of Covid patients go viral, situation worsens in Bihar

Health services in Bihar came under scrutiny again as three more videos of neglected patients surfaced on Monday. With the Covid-19 situation worsening in the state, social media has been abuzz with such viral videos.

 The three videos which were in wide circulation on social media show suspected Covid-19 patients in varying stages of neglect.

One video, filmed at Gardiner Hospital in Patna, showed a man shouting for help from the doctors while his wife lay unconscious in his arms. The couple had gone to the hospital for a Covid test, but the exhausted woman fainted after facing long queues and unresponsive hospital staff.

The second video showed a young man struggling for life on NH30 in Patna, as onlookers, including policemen, stood by without offering him any help. In a third video, the dead body of an elderly person by an overbridge in the Patna Sahib area was seen. The body remained at the spot for several hours, removed reportedly only after the video started circulating online.

 Several recent viral videos are being seen as telltale evidence of the shape of health services in Bihar. So far, 255 people have died of coronavirus in the state.

At least 2,192 new cases have also been reported in the last 24 hours, with 1,423 samples tested in the same period.

The scale of testing is being called highly inadequate given the state’s population of 12 crore people.

After much recent criticism, the state health minister visited hospitals after over three months, to look at the ground situation. However, the state of affairs has not seen any improvement since then.