What, China? Run, run, run.

That’s what happened at the emergency ward room 6 of Palamau Medical College and Hospital on Sunday evening around 7 when a man turned up, breath reeking of liquor. He complained of stomach ache. Asked where he was from for hospital records, the man mumbled something that sounded like China.

Actually Bipin Bhuiyan, 40, of village Pipra Kadhvan under Bishrampur block of Palamau had said “Chennai”. Bipin had gone to work as a migrant labourer in Chennai in December and returned to Palamau on February 28.

But because of his slurred speech, it sounded like China, now made infamous globally as the home of coronavirus.

Dr Rajiv Nayan, the government doctor on duty at that time, said other people at the ward reacted like they had been bitten by a rattlesnake.

“They misheard China and instantly panicked. People said that if this man was from China, coronavirus can’t be far behind. It led to a great hue and cry. Dozens of patients started fleeing as fast as their feeble legs could carry them.”

Nayan said he tried to tell patients that Bipin had said Chennai and not China. “But such was the panic that no one believed me. I rang up civil surgeon Dr John F. Kennedy, requesting him to come to emergency ward 6.”

Nayan said Bipin had returned from Chennai after contracting jaundice. “Bipin is a confirmed alcoholic and takes cheap liquor that has worsened his liver. He was admitted to the hospital later on Sunday evening after we managed to calm down the patients.”

Civil surgeon Kennedy said that on getting Nayan’s call he immediately rushed to the hospital and took stock of the situation. “I and Dr Nayan and other hospital staff persuaded patients to stay calm. I sent many of them to their beds on floor 3 of the hospital which they did peacefully after some convincing.”

Kennedy added that he has asked the Daltonganj’s central prison government doctor Birendra Kumar to take all precautionary measures, especially regular washing of hands, to ensure no risk to health befalls inmates. There are around 1,200 inmates in the central prison here.