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A district level committee that was constituted to probe the Swarna Palace Hotel fire accident in Vijayawada has found several violations. As per media reports, the COVID-19 Care Centre (CCC) that was set up in Swarna Palace Hotel by Ramesh Hospitals had not complied with ‘any’ norms that are required to run a CCC in a private accommodation, stated the committee report.
According to a Deccan Chronicle report, the CCC was running without even obtaining mandatory permissions that are required from the state government to run the centre and Ramesh Hospitals was found to be running similar centres in other hotels as well, without any permissions.
The report adds that the CCC was found to be operating in severe violation of the COVID-19 treatment protocol as well.
It was found that the CCC was providing treatment to the patients whose reports were negative for COVID-19, as it was giving Remdesivir injections to all patients irrespective of its demand, which is a violation. It was also mentioned that patients with suspected COVID-19 as well as patients with no COVID-19 were being accommodated in the same place and given treatment.
The committee report added that Ramesh Hospitals was treating COVID-19 patients at the Swarna Palace Hotel even before coming to an agreement with the hotel. It was further found that the hotel, which was being operated from a busy junction, does not even have a No objection certificate (NOC) for fire, and also has a tax due of Rs 33.69 lakh to the Vijayawada municipal corporation.
The committee submitted its inquiry report to the government on Wednesday.
The Krishna district level committee is headed by the Joint Collector, L Siva Shankar. The committee also inspected the scene at the Swarna Palace Hotel, which was converted into a paid COVID-19 Care Centre by Ramesh Hospitals.
As earlier reported, on August 9, a major fire broke out in at the CCC in Swarna Palace Hotel, where 10 people lost their lives.