23 'missing' COVID-19 patients of Hindu Rao hosp tracked

New Delhi: The 23 COVID-19 patients who reportedly went missing from the North Delhi Municipal Corporation-run Hindu Rao Hospital have been traced to other medical facilities or found to be recuperating in home isolation, an official statement said on Monday.

Nineteen of these 23 patients left the hospital even before they could be shifted from emergency area to wards inside the hospital, the statement quoted North Delhi Mayor Jai Prakash as saying.

The remaining four patients were actually discharged after appropriate treatment, but were "erroneously reported as absconding on account of some reporting error", he said.

"It is hereby clarified that all these 23 cases have been tracked right from their movement from the Hindu Rao Hospital (HRH) to either a Delhi government hospital or a central government hospital or a private hospital or found to be recuperating in home isolation," the mayor noted.

Prakash had on Saturday said that at least 23 COVID-19 patients left HRH between April 19 and May 6 without informing the medical facility.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had on Sunday ordered an inquiry into the incident.

HRH, run by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, is the largest civic hospital in the national capital.