Maharashtra Covid Patient Dies Hours After 'Dharna' With Oxygen Mask

A 38-year-old coronavirus patient who had to sit on a protest outside the municipal corporation in Maharashtra's Nashik after allegedly being turned back by a number of hospitals died just after midnight on Thursday.

Babasaheb Kole was seen on a 'dharna', wearing an oxygen mask connected to a cylinder, last evening outside the civic body's headquarters.

After about an hour, an ambulance from the corporation took him to the municipal hospital.

According to his family, at around midnight, his oxygen level went close to 40 per cent. A normal level of oxygen is usually 95 per cent or higher.

Babasaheb died around 1 am in the night.

"Two-three days back he was taken to Bytco (Hospital). From there, he went to another hospital, from there to the government medical college. Medical College said no bed. We went to a lot of hospitals. Nobody admitted him. Then we came back to civil (hospital) and got oxygen for him and put him on it. Nobody heard us," his distraught wife told local journalists.

The police and the corporation say they have launched an investigation to find out who "instigated" the patient to picket the municipal building.

Maharashtra is struggling with a fresh wave of coronavirus infections that have pushed the state's health infrastructure to the edge in many places.

The state reported nearly 40,000 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, its second-highest single-day rise in infection tally since the pandemic began, a health official said.

The new wave in the state, home to the country's financial capital Mumbai, have driven a surge in India's caseload that currently stands at 1.22 crore, behind only the US and Brazil.