Most of COVID-19 deceased were gas tragedy victims: Bhopal NGO
While an NGO has claimed that 15 of the 17 COVID-19deceased were the survivors of the gas tragedy, the governmentsaid it was not in a position to confirm this claim at thisstage.
"We have compiled the data of 15 out of the 17 deathsin the state capital due to COVID-19 and found that 15 were1984 gas tragedy victims as per their health records," BhopalGroup for Information and Action (BGIA) convener RachnaDhingra told .
The BGIA, which works for rehabilitation of the gasvictims, has shared a list of the 15 deceased and the healthcomplications among them due to inhalation of toxic plumes ofMethyl Isocyanate that leaked from a plant on the interveningnight of December 2 and 3, 1984, killing thousands.
"As the gas victims are already affected, they aremore vulnerable to COVID-19 and hence needed extra care andattention which the authorities failed to gauge whileconverting the dedicated Bhopal Memorial Hospital and ResearchCentre (BMHRC) into a state-level COVID-19 facility, and laterreversed that status following the deaths of the gas affectedpersons," Dhingra claimed.
Meanwhile, the state government has decided to screenthe vulnerable section among the survivors of the world'sworst industrial disaster so that they can be isolated at adedicated centre in the event of showing any primary symptomsof coronavirus infection.
"We cannot say at this stage that out of 17 how manywere gas tragedy victims, but we have decided to startscreening those persons who are more vulnerable and havedeveloped initial symptoms of COVID-19, so that they can beisolated and quarantined," newly-appointed Bhopal Gas Reliefdepartment's director Ved Prakash told .
Once identified, they would be isolated at RasoolAhmed Pulmonary Medicine Centre, a facility of the Gas Reliefdepartment, he said.
"If they are found to be infected with coronavirus,they would be shifted to the dedicated COVID facility inBhopal," said Ved Prakash.
Meanwhile, the BGIA claimed that of the 15 deaths dueto COVID-19, ten were over 60 years of age, three were around50 while the rest two were under 45 years of age.
The youngest victim among them was a 39-year-old whohad history of hypertension and a 42-year-old cancer patient,it claimed.
According to BGIA, all the 15 deceased had beenexposed to the toxic gas and lived within four-km radius ofthe now-defunct plant.
"Majority of the victims had comorbidities like COPD(Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), diabetes, cancer, TBand hypertension etc, that made them more vulnerable toCOVID-19," Dhingra claimed. MAS NSK NSK