In a bizarre incident, an elderly person in a Shanghai nursing home was mistakenly taken to the morgue while still alive, local media reported, as the city's prolonged lockdown continues to put a strain on city health facilities amid renewed COVID-19 outbreak.
The local government confirmed the incident which has triggered widespread anger and condemnation among Chinese people.
Soon after the report broke out, the Shanghai authorities established a joint team to investigate the nursing home where an elderly person who still has vital signs was reportedly being transferred to a mortuary.
The elderly person has been transferred to hospital and was stable, state media outlet Global Times reported.
As many as five officials in Shanghai's Putuo district and the head of a local welfare house were held accountable and put under investigation after a local welfare house had wrongly transferred a living elderly person to the mortuary.
The incident comes as Shanghai's lockdown enters have come under heavy criticism, with people unable to access essential medical care.
The country's much-publicized "zero-covid" strategy that the government credited for bringing the country out of the pandemic till recently is falling apart as the rapidly mounting cases are again forcing mass lockdowns like those seen in 2020.
( With inputs from ANI )
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