Mumbai, May 7: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) took cognisance of a video going viral which shows patients lying next to dead bodies at Mumbai's Sion Hospital. The civic body said it has assigned a team to conduct a probe into the matter. The team will submit the report within the next 24 hours, it said in a statement on Thursday, hours after the clip was widely circulated among netizens.

The BMC drew massive flak as the Sion Hospital is one of the medical facilities which is run by the civic body. The hospital is a designated COVID-19 facility, and treating a bulk of the coronavirus cases recorded in Mumbai so far. Mumbai Shocker: Horrific Video of Sion Hospital Shows Patients Sleeping with Dead Bodies Inside COVID-19 Ward.

"We have constituted a committee to investigate the viral video and the report will be out in 24 hours," the Municipal Corporation said, adding that due action would be taken if the staff and officials are found responsible for negligence.

Update by ANI

The clip that went viral showed dead bodies of COVID-19 patients lying in the same wards where active cases are being treated. In the video, family members of patients could be seen attending them despite the presence of dead bodies around them -- which hinted that they were accustomed to see corpse of deceased inside the wards.

The corpses were tightly wrapped in black plastic, considering that polythene prevents spread of infection and stops the bodies from decaying. An official of the hospital told reporters that the bodies were kept in the wards as they were unclaimed, and adequate space was not available in the mortuary.

The video had drawn flak from all quarters, with senior Congress leader Milind Deora demanding the city administration to ramp up its efforts in dealing with the virus outbreak. "Outraged to see corpses laid beside the sick at Sion Hospital. Why isn't BMC following WHO prescribed protocols when disposing of COVID-19 corpses? Public hospital staff are doing their best with limited resources at hand. Mumbai's administration needs to step up NOW! (sic)," he said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 07, 2020 05:44 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).