Youth at Covid centre dies as ambulance fails to arrive

Odisha health centre official says he died of heart attack

A youth who was kept at a quarantine centre in Khaira area of Odisha’s Balasore district died at hospital on Wednesday night following illness as an ambulance allegedly failed to turn up because of the “reluctance” of authorities. The deceased was identified as Bipin Bihari Mallik, a resident of Jalada area in the district.

Bipin was working at a hotel in Mumbai and had returned to Odisha with his elder brother, Madhusudan Mallik, on May 29.

Sources said Bipin and Madhusudan boarded a Shramik Special train on May 27 and reached Bhadrak railway station on May 29. Later, they were directly taken to the quarantine centre at Jalda Nodal School.

On Wednesday evening, Bipin complained of severe chest pain following which his brother called the 108 and 104 health helpline numbers and requested for an ambulance to shift Bipin to a hospital.

However, Madhusudan alleged that the concerned authorities refused, citing they were not allowed to

facilitate patients who are lodged at quarantine centres.

“After helpline numbers 104 and 108 refused to send any ambulance to the quarantine centre, we took Bipin to Soro Community Health Centre (CHC) on a bike. However, he died while undergoing treatment at the CHC,” alleged Bipin’s brother.

On the other hand, Soro Community Health Centre superintendent Satyanarayan Nayak said, “The youth was suffering from severe chest pain.

Though he was given preliminary treatment, he succumbed after 10 minutes. He was not having any symptoms of Covid-19 and died of heart attack.”

In another incident, a woman, who was under home quarantine, was found hanging from the ceiling fan of a room in her house at Baksama village in Sambalpur district on Thursday morning.

The woman, identified as Pallavi, had recently returned from her maternal house in Andhra Pradesh.