Aligarh health authorities mistakenly declare woman 'dead' due to COVID-19

Negligence from the district health department in Aligarh has resulted in declaring a living person "dead".

Rahul Kulshrestha, Nodal COVID-19 Sampling, Aligarh, said, "The former Chief Medical Officer of the district had prepared a list of the victims who died due to COVID-19 during the second wave of the deadly virus in the months of April-May. In the list, then CMO inadvertently added the victim, Shakunthala Devi's name."

According to Kulshrestha, the incident came to light when the present CMO Dr Anand directed the health officials to call up every victim's family member and tell them to collect Rs 50,000 as compensation from the respective health department office.

Meanwhile, the victim said: "I had contracted the disease during the second wave of COVID-19 and was admitted to the hospital for ten days. Later they discharged me and my treatment was going."

She said, "I got to know about my death when the health officials called by the family members for verification and asked to collect the compensation."

Kulshrestha said, "We have realized our mistake and made the changes. Now we have removed her name from the compensation list, which the family members were eligible after her reported death."

( With inputs from ANI )