Four people have been dismissed from their jobs after a Shanghai nursing home resident was taken to the mortuary only to be declared alive later. – Screenshot via Twitter/ @songpinganq
KUALA LUMPUR, May 5 – Four people have been dismissed from their jobs after a nursing home resident in Shanghai was mistakenly taken to the mortuary while still alive.
The four were the nursing home’s director and three officials from the district civil affairs bureau and social development office, Bloomberg reported.
Their dismissal came after the municipal government, which confirmed the incident, launched an investigation into the matter.
The director of the district civil affairs bureau is being further investigated, while city authorities revoked the licence of a doctor surnamed Tian and opened a public security case against him.
The mistake came as Shanghai’s lockdown entered its fifth week and new Covid-19 cases remain in the thousands daily.
The tough restrictions and compulsory isolation of all virus cases and close contacts have created havoc in the city of 25 million, with people unable to access essential medical care.
Most of the more than 400 deaths in the latest wave have been elderly people with underlying health conditions, with reports that some nursing homes weren’t reporting deaths.
While it remains unclear whether the resident was infected with Covid-19 or vaccinated, the low inoculation rate among China’s elderly remains the country’s Achilles heel in the fight against the pandemic.
In Shanghai, just 62 per cent of residents over 60 years of age have been fully vaccinated, and only 15 per cent of the population aged over 80 have received two shots.
Meanwhile, the nursing home resident has been sent to the hospital for treatment and their vital signs are stabilising.
The Bureau of Civil Affairs in the Putuo district where the home is located promised to disclose their findings after the investigation was completed.