Many COVID-19 patients at Telangana’s Gandhi Hospital, who have recovered from the contagious disease and have been discharged by the medical staff, have been abandoned by their families, who have refused to take them home.

Gandhi Hospital is the designated nodal centre in Telangana to treat COVID-19 cases.

According to NDTV, Dr Prabhakar Rao, Nodal Officer, Gandhi Hospital, said that there are ‘over 50 patients including men and women who tested positive for COVID-19’ and underwent treatment at the hospital over last 10- 15 days.

‘All of them are healthy and have no symptoms. We have discharged them and declared them fit for home quarantine. But their family members are refusing to take them to their residences,’ he said.

Stating that these patients have waited outside the hospital for hours, he added, ‘When no one from their families came to take them, we re-admitted them back to the hospital and provide them beds to stay. There are two age groups in these patients.’

Subsequently, the patients who fall in the higher age bracket in Gandhi Hospital and the other group of people aged around 50 years has been moved to Nature Cure Hospital.

‘Their families are also asking us to do testing to make sure that they are negative. In this critical situation doing tests repeatedly is not possible,’ he said.

Talking about one such patient who is a 93-year-old COVID-19 positive woman, Dr Rao informed that she was admitted to Gandhi Hospital 15 days ago. Although fine now, her family members are not coming to take her back home. She continues to stay in the hospital.

Another 85-year-old-patient, who had tested positive and got admitted to Gandhi Hospital 16 days ago, is not showing any symptoms and can be under home quarantine.

His family, however, are refusing to take him home and are demanding a re-test.

Also Read: Two Nurses In Punjab Who Tested Positive For COVID-19 Write Exams From Hospital’s Isolation Ward