Monkeys steal coronavirus blood samples and run up tree
Some mischievous monkeys have snatched blood samples belonging to people who tested positive to COVID-19 from a laboratory assistant.
The group of animals set on an employee working in the COVID-19 facility at the Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial Medical College and Hospital in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, CNN reported.
The assistant was carrying a container with three samples inside on Thursday (local time) when the monkeys nicked them and ran off up a tree.
They chewed through the packets before tossing the blood samples onto the ground below the tree, the head of the hospital told a local newswire.
The samples had been taken from people who had earlier returned positive results to COVID-19 from an initial test for the disease.
Blood had been drawn from them as part of standard procedure, the hospital said.
The hospital’s medical superintendent Dr Dheeraj Baliyan told CNN the samples did not come into contact with anyone and they had since been properly disposed of.
The area surrounding where the monkeys threw the samples has also been sanitised by hospital authorities, Dr Baliyan told the publication.
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An inquiry has been launched into whether the samples were mishandled by the hospital.
India has recorded 165,799 cases of the virus and 4,706 deaths, according to health ministry records accurate as of Friday (local time).
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