In a shocking incident, a gardener was forced to collect swab samples for covid-19 test at government civil hospital in Madhya Pradesh's Sanchi. The daily wage gardener had to do the job as the hospital was facing shortage of staff due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The hospital in Sanchi falls in the constituency of state health minister Prabhuram Choudhary. The incident came to light on Monday when some television reporters recorded the gardener, Halke Ram, collecting swabs of people for testing at the hospital in Sanchi, a world heritage site located 50 km away from Bhopal.
Block Medical Officer (BMO) Dr Rajyashri Tidke said the hospital was facing shortage of staff due to the COVID-19 pandemic so the help of the gardener was taken.
"Almost half of the staff of the hospital was found covid positive. I had already informed senior health officials about the shortage of staff in the Sanchi civil hospital," she said. Halke Ram said he was assigned the task of sample collection by the BMO.
Madhya Pradesh on Monday logged the highest 6,489 coronavirus positive cases in a day, taking the tally of infections in the state to 3,44,634 while the death toll is 4,221.