The novel coronavirus outbreak continues to wreak havoc in India, with more than 3 lakh people having tested positive till date. Against this backdrop, an increasingly large number of people are making their way to hospitals and other medical facilities.
And while facilities remain free or bear nominal costs at government facilities, this is not quite the case for private outlets.
In recent days, a price chart for the costs that would be incurred by COVID-19 patients at Max Super Specialty Hospital in Patparganj, Delhi had caused quite the outrage on Twitter.
After a Twitter user shared a standee banner depicting the 'schedule of charges for treatment of COVID-19 patients', the company had stepped in to clarify that this price was inclusive of several charges.
While the original price chart tweeted by a social media user had mentioned what was excluded from the prices given, it had made no mention of the inclusions.
"A picture related to the pricing of COVID treatment at Max Patparganj (stated in some tweets as Max Gurgaon) is being circulated on social media. However, it did not carry all the facts such as inclusions of routine tests, routine medicines, doctor and nurse charges etc," Max Healthcare wrote on its Twitter handle.
Globally, the number of COVID-19 cases has crossed 7,693,300. While India has initially recorded relatively lower number of cases, the number has risen greatly since.
At present the country ranks fourth globally by the sheer number of cases recorded. It however has very low mortality rate. Within India, Maharashtra has recorded the highest number of cases, recently breaching the one lakh mark.
