Agra DM concedes shocking video of food scramble & apathy amid Covid lockdown; assures fix

The Uttar Pradesh administration on Sunday said that it has held "inspection" and taken "corrective measures" after a couple of mobile videos surfaced online that showed people at a COVID-19 quarantine centre in Agra scrambling for essentials like tea, biscuits and water from behind the locked gates of the facility.

'Top officials have been asked to fix the problem'

Speaking to ANI, Prabhu N Singh, District Magistrate of Agra said, "The top officials of the team have been asked to look into the matter and fix the responsibilities. The team has been directed to identify the loopholes and be more careful in rendering services at the coronavirus quarantine centre."

In one of the two videos, a man in protective gear is seen throwing biscuit packets close to the gate and people from the other side stretch their hands to try and get them. In the video, social distancing which is essential in quarantine centres can be seen going for a toss as people crowd the gate to collect the biscuit packets and mineral water bottles. 

Coronavirus in Uttar Pradesh

With three COVID-19 deaths reported on Sunday, the death toll due to the disease climbed to 30 in Uttar Pradesh, officials said. Of the three fresh deaths, two were reported from Agra while one was from Meerut, Dr Vikasendu Agrawal, Joint Director and State Surveillance Officer, Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), said in a statement issued in Lucknow.

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Agra has accounted for 10 COVID-19 deaths, Moradabad six, Meerut five, Kanpur three and Basti, Varanasi, Bulandshahr, Lucknow, Firozabad and Aligarh have reported a fatality each.

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On Sunday, 80 fresh COVID-19 cases were reported from the state, with Kanpur Nagar and Saharanpur recording 21 cases each, followed by 11 in Varanasi. So far, 1,873 coronavirus cases have been reported from 58 of the 75 districts in Uttar Pradesh. As many as 327 COVID-19 patients have been cured and discharged from hospitals, including 66 on Sunday, Agarwal said. The count of active cases in the state stands at 1,516, he added.

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(With agency inputs)