JNMC clarifies death figures

ALIGARH : Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College (JNMC) principal Prof Shahid Ali Siddiqui has denied what he described as the “exaggerated” figure of deaths of AMU’s serving and retired teachers doing the rounds on social media.

In a rejoinder, Prof Siddiqui said, “AMU has been bereaved of 18 faculty members since the onset of the second Covid wave, out of which 15 were either Covid or suspected Covid patients. Three patients have died because of non-Covid reasons such as brain tuberculosis and liver disease. And moreover, out of the 15 Covid or suspected Covid deaths, four have occurred outside Aligarh.”

“These social media posts have also wrongly mentioned that the retired faculty members, who died in the past one-month were all undergoing treatment at JNMC. We like to make it clear that many of these superannuated faculty members were not even in Aligarh at the time of their deaths,” he added.

Prof Siddiqui further said: “JNMC administration and its team of doctors and paramedical staff is working round the clock with the best of their abilities and scores of our health workers also got infected with coronavirus in the line of duty. We exhort all concerned, especially the AMU employees, to get vaccinated at the earliest on top priority as the incidence of death has been very low among inoculated people.”