India reported 2.95 lakh cases of the novel coronavirus and 2,023 deaths in the 24 hours ending 9 am Wednesday. India’s Covid-19 tally is now 1,56,16,130, with a death toll of 1,82,553. There are 21,57,538 active cases in the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an address to the nation on Tuesday night, said the second wave of Covid-19 has swept the country like a “toofan” (storm), and called on citizens not to lose heart in this adversity. He requested states to use lockdown as a last resort, and focus only on micro-containment zones.
Amid thus, a photo showing a man and an elderly woman on a motorcycle carrying an oxygen cylinder is getting shared on social media. The image, where the woman seems to be wearing an oxygen mask was shared on Facebook by former MP and Jan Adhikar Party President Rajesh Ranjan. He wrote that the image exposes the state of the healthcare system in Bihar. “The person is forced to ferry the oxygen cylinder on the bike as the government doesn’t even have ambulances,” said Ranjan, better known as Pappu Yadav. At the time of writing this article, the post had been shared over 1,700 times.
According to reports states including Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and others are grappling with the sudden spike of COVID-19 in the second wave of the pandemic. There has also been a growing demand for medical oxygen due to the unprecedented spike in the daily cases, following which the government has banned the supply of oxygen for industrial sector purposes, barring nine sectors.
After a thorough research, it was ascertained that the image is from Bangladesh and not India. A board reading in Bangla “Barishal Engineering College” can be seen in the background. Barishal is a south central city of Bangladesh.
The same image shared on April 18, 2021 by Bangladesh Journal. The publication reported that the image was shared on Facebook on Saturday by city police traffic surgent Touhid Tutul. The same image was shared on Tutul’s timeline. An excerpt from Prothom Alo, a media outlet from Bangladesh, reads, “The man riding the bike has been identified as Jiaul Hasan, a bank employee by profession who stays in Nalpasha area under Nalchiti Municipality in Jhalkathi. His mother, 50 year old Rehana Parvin, a primary school teacher of Nalchiti Port Primary school has been suffering with fever since 10-days. On Thursday she tested COVID-19 positive. Oxygen was required and initially Jiaul bought a cylinder to give treatment to his mother at home. But the condition deteriorated after which she was required to be hospitalised immediately. Jiaul failed to manage an ambulance or any other vehicle to take his mother. He then tied the cylinder with a cloth on his back and took his mother as a pillion and reached Sher-E-Bangla Medical College in Barishal to admit Rahana, which is located 18 km away.” Touhid Tutul was on duty at Hiran Point area, where they were crossing. He allowed them to go. He and other commuters took the image which became viral later.
