In India, a monkey snatched blood samples of Covid-19 patients from a lab technician of the Meerut Medical College on Friday. This video shows the monkey sitting up a tree and chewing on a white packet that appears to be a sample collection kit.
“The incident was brought to our notice and we enquired the lab technician. As per our information, the samples that had been snatched are not the testing samples which consist of the throat and tongue swab. These were blood samples that are taken from Covid-19 patients during routine treatment. The Covid-19 samples are kept in a box while these samples are not,” said SK Garg, Principal, Lala Lajpat Rai Medical College, Meerut.
According to officials, the blood samples are routinely tested.
The medical authorities stated that there is no need to panic about possible spread of the virus through the monkeys. “There is no evidence so far that it spreads through animals and there is no need to worry,” said Garg.