20 patients escape from COVID care centre in Uttarakhand's Tehri

PTI photo

Tehri: Hoodwinking the authorities, 20 patients escaped from a COVID care centre at Narendra Nagar at Uttarakhand's Tehri, officials said on Sunday.

The matter came to light when doctors visited the wards at the centres on Saturday night for a regular check-up, Chief Medical Superintendent Niraj Rai said. Thirty-eight people were being treated there, of which 20 were found missing, said Chief Medical Officer Suman Arya.

Two of those who escaped belonged to Uttarakhand while the rest were from outside the state, she said.

Seven of them were from Rajasthan, four each from Uttar Pradesh and Odisha and three from Haryana, she said.

A case has been registered against the missing patients under the Disaster Management and Epidemic Diseases Acts and a search has been launched for them, Narendra Nagar SHO Shanti Prasad Dimri said.

Adequate police personnel have been deployed at the care centre following the incident.