It all started at Meerut Medical College, 72km northeast of New Delhi, when a gang of monkeys broke into the college, found the laboratory and fled with blood samples taken from people who were possibly infected with COVID-19.
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According to reports, the monkeys attacked one of the lab technicians and stole multiple batches of blood taken from four patients who possibly had the coronavirus. It is also worth mentioning that this is one of the most important hospitals in the country in the fight against the coronavirus and that it has quite an extensive laboratory.
Naturally, locals started to panic when they witnessed the monkeys fleeing with the tests and one of them was even spotted in a tree chewing on one of the samples before crumbling it and throwing it to the ground.
As hospital staff explained to the Indian network NDTV, the samples did not have COVID-19 per se, but were blood samples from patients who had previously tested positive for the virus and that were to undergo different tests.
‘Monkeys grabbed and fled with the blood samples of four COVID-19 patients who are undergoing treatment,’ as Dr S. K. Garg explained, before adding that they were collected for routine tests and ‘do not include COVID-19 swab test samples’.
Authorities have also stressed that there is still no scientific evidence that guarantees animals can transmit the coronavirus. So despite the facts and the seriousness of the situation, people have mostly been laughing about these mischievous little monkeys instead.
