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Covid patients from Maharashtra make beeline to Mancherial hospitals

By Padala Santosh

Published Date - 29 April 2021, 12:16 AM

Covid patients from Maharashtra make beeline to Mancherial hospitals

Mancherial: There has been a steady flow of Covid patients from neighbouring Maharashtra into hospitals in Mancherial town on account of better healthcare services. The medical fraternity is in a quandary since the inflow of patients has not only added to the local numbers but has also contributed to the spread of the virus with not many following the safety protocol.

The neighbouring State has been seeing a huge surge in infection and deaths, and hundreds of families living in the border areas that are far flung from their district headquarters are now relying on private nursing homes in Mancherial. For instance, residents of Sironcha in Gadchiroli district are forced to come to hospitals in Mancherial since they would otherwise have to travel 210 km for a hospital in their district headquarters. Instead, they can easily reach Mancherial town which is barely 60 km from Sironcha and surrounding villages of this Taluq in Maharashtra.

“However, family members and relatives of the patients are not following precautions to control the spread of the virus. They are not wearing masks, nor maintaining physical distance. They are freely moving in streets around the hospitals. I feel their negligence is one of the factors that have contributed to the unprecedented surge in positive cases in the town,” a resident of Janmabhoomi Nagar observed.

The locals requested authorities concerned to strictly enforce Covid-19 protocol to check the increasing number of kin of patients from Maharashtra visiting the hospitals. They urged the hospitals to ensure that the attendants of the infected wear masks and practice physical distancing. They fear that their negligence would result in a major surge in the town.