India Lost 50 Doctors to Covid in a Day, IMA Says Over 200 Lost Lives So Far in Second Wave

As many as 244 doctors have lost their lives in the second wave of coronavirus in India, data from the Indian Medical Association (IMA) registry showed. Among them, 50 of the doctors succumbed to the virus on Sunday as the pandemic continued to wreak havoc across the nation.

Bihar registered the highest number of deaths of physicians (69), followed by Uttar Pradesh (34) and Delhi (27). Only three per cent of these doctors had reportedly completed the vaccination course against coronavirus.

The IMA said Dr Anas Mujahid, aged 25, was the youngest to lose the battle to COVID-19, while the oldest member of the association dying from the virus was Vishakhapatnam-based Dr S Satyamurthy. The 90-year-old doctor was a retired professor of ENT.

Mujahid was a junior resident doctor at Delhi’s Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, dedicated state-run COVID facility. He passed away within hours of testing positive for the virus due to intracranial bleeding, according to a report in NDTV.

Mujahid reportedly had minor symptoms like sore throat and tested positive in an antigen test at the hospital. He had not been vaccinated.

Last year, over 730 doctors had died from the infection across the country, the IMA said. However, the Union government had said in Parliament it has not tracked the numbers.

“While last year, we lost nearly 730 doctors across India, this year in a short period of time we have lost 244 doctors. The second wave is proving extremely fatal for all and especially those at the forefront of the battle. We have to actively increase vaccination cover among the medical staff to ensure that they have protection against the virus,’’ IMA president JA Jayalal by The Hindu.

The figures emerged on a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the strategy of starting the vaccination programme with frontline warriors paid rich dividends in the second wave and ensured the safety of most of the doctors as 90 percent of health professionals have already taken its first dose. Modi interacted with a group of doctors via video-conferencing wherein he said be it testing, supply of medicines or setting up new infrastructure in “record time”, all these are being done at a fast pace.

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