The second wave of the Covid-19 has left infected patients gasping for breath as hospitals in some states continue to face an acute shortage of medical oxygen. Many hospitals in Delhi and few other states are currently operating on the edge due to a shortage of medical oxygen and unavailable beds for more patients.
Amid this an old video of a child pushing a stretcher inside a hospital has been revived in the spike of Covid cases to condemn the central government’s handling of the shortage and oxygen across the country. The video was shared by Twitter user Afzal Hussain, who identifies himself as the district coordinator of Indian Youth Congress in Bihar.
The video had garnered over 1,000 views at the time of writing this article, and was shared with the caption, “What would make a more self-reliant India? This is enough,” along with hashtags, ‘COVID19’ , ‘coronavirus’ and ‘indianeedoxygen’. The video had garnered over 5,200 views.
The viral clip is from Deoria District Hospital in Uttar Pradesh dates back to July 2020. The child and his mother were forced to push the stretcher of their injured grandfather, as the ward boy had sought money for the same.
The 17 second footage was shared in July 2020 with false claims, captioned as, “Democracy is in danger today, hence such a scenario can be seen in West Bengal”. The video, shows the minor helping his mother push the stretcher carrying his ailed grandfather, was shared with a narrative which took a dig at the existing medical facilities of West Bengal to treat the novel Coronavirus patients. A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader of West Bengal, Phalguni Patra, had also shared the video on her official Facebook page with the same narrative.
The original reports by News 18 and Aaj Tak mentioned that Deoria District Magistrate Amit Kishore had visited the hospital to meet the family members of Chedi Yadav, the patient in the viral video. A probe set up under sadar SDM and the assistant chief medical officer of the hospital found the ward boy as the ‘culprit.’
India had exported 9,301 metric tonnes of oxygen across the world between April 2020 and January 2021. In comparison, the country had exported only 4,502 metric tonnes of oxygen in FY20. And the increasing number of cases has led to a shortage in the number of available beds in the country. But this viral video is not recent.
