Monkeys Steal Coronavirus Patient Blood Samples From Lab Tech In India
David Moye
·3-min read
It sounds bananas, but authorities in India say a troop of monkeys attacked a medical official and stole blood samples belonging to patients who had tested positive for the coronavirus.
Earlier this week, a lab technician at a state-run medical college in Meerut was walking across campus when some rhesus macaques converged on him.
The monkeys then snatched away blood samples that the lab tech was carrying that came from four COVID-19 patients who are undergoing treatment, according to Reuters.
Eyewitnesses reported seeing a monkey chewing on one of the sample collection kits while sitting at the top of a tree, according to India.com.
In addition, the monkeys left parts of the stolen kits scattered on the ground, concerning local officials.
Dr. S. K. Garg, an official at the college where the monkey attack occurred, told Reuters he wasn’t sure if the monkeys might contract the coronavirus if they have come into contact with infected blood.
“No evidence has been found that monkeys can contract the infection,” Garg said.
SkyNews reports that since lockdown measures were imposed two months ago in the area, monkeys have been congregating in places that are normally crowded with humans.
However, some observers believe that many of the primates are struggling because the human food they normally consume has been severely reduced.
Naturally, Twitter users went ape for the story.
‼️Just when you thought today couldn’t get any weirder: agang of monkeys attacked a laboratory assistant in #India and escaped with a batch of #coronavirus blood test samples.😳https://t.co/6Bv8GCncdQ
Did anyone have Monkeys attacking lab assistant on their bingo card? i had pigs with AR -15s and Murder Hornets but no Monkeys making off with slide samples 😳https://t.co/lUkrzl7aNZ
Israel’s presumed counterstrike against Iran has proved Joe Biden and David Cameron wrong in their insistence that Israel should just “take the win”. Instead, it fought back – and yesterday Iran was trying to pretend that nothing had happened.
Israel’s strike on Iran on Friday morning will not come as a surprise to Western observers – but it will cause great concern in Washington and London as the region tips closer towards an all-out war.
While Western eyes are fixed on Tehran and Tel Aviv, Ukraine’s frontlines are showing clear signs of crumbling. There is a very real possibility they could crumble this summer if we do not throw the kitchen sink at Russia. Even if we do, it may already be too late for the weapons and munitions long promised by the West to save the day.
All but a small handful of Manchester City players and staff had already retired to the dressing room, dazed and doubtless a little confused about what had just unfolded, by the time Bernardo Silva started his slow trudge off the pitch.
Aston Villa booked their place in the Europa League semi-finals in dramatic fashion by winning a drama-filled penalty shootout, where goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez received his second yellow card but was not sent off.
A 39-year-old Singaporean woman was found dead with multiple stab wounds after going missing in Spain, and a Singaporean man has been arrested. Read on.
Tensions between Israel and Iran have reached new heights as Tehran repeats its warnings that a response to its own missile attack could be lethal for the region
Jürgen Klopp said Liverpool squandered their Europa League chances at Anfield and insisted Mohamed Salah’s wastefulness was not the cause of their exit
For only the eighth time in the past quarter of a century, England finds itself without a single representative in the last four of the Champions League. That feels, in the immediate aftermath of this soul-sapping defeat for Manchester City, like an unvarnished travesty.