As the number of daily COVID-19 cases crossed the 3-lakh mark on Thursday, 22 April, an image of three patients sharing the same bed has gone viral on social media falsely identifying the location as Gujarat.
But we found that the image was actually taken at the Government Medical College and Hospital in Maharashtra’s Nagpur where an overflow of COVID patients in the casualty wards led to the overcrowding.
CLAIM
The image was shared by Facebook page 'Rofl Gandhi' with the caption, "Highest Statue in the world in Gujarat. See the development model of the hospital of Gujarat. Two male patients on the same bed with a female," in Hindi.
The post had garnered over 4,700 likes and 1,500 shares at the time of writing this article.
The image was also shared with the same claim by Facebook pages 'Ravish Kumar - The Fearless Reporter' and 'Amethi Rae Bareli ki Kahani', garnering over 5,600 and 1,300 likes, respectively.
The image was shared on Twitter with the caption 'Gujarat Model', in Hindi.
User Sandip Gopani had garnered over 2,100 likes at the time of writing this article. An archived version of a similar claim on Twitter can be viewed here.
WHAT WE FOUND
On a reverse image search we came across a tweet by Times Now journalist Megha S Prasad, who had shared the image stating that it was from a hospital in Nagpur.
The date and time stamp on the image suggests it was taken on 9 April 2021, at 9:41 pm.
Taking hints from this, we performed a keyword search and came across images shared by news agency ANI, which looked similar to the viral image.
According to ANI's tweet, the images were taken at Nagpur’s GMC Hospital (Government Medical College and Hospital).
A comparison of the viral image with the one tweeted by ANI shows that the visuals like the walls of the hospital ward, windows, beds, curtains, and bed-side equipment match.
We also came across a report by News18 Hindi, carrying images from the GMC Hospital of the overcrowded beds.
On zooming in, we noticed that the font and style used for 'बेड न. २' in the viral image and 'बेड न. २०' in the image on News18 Hindi match.
A local reporter also confirmed to The Quint’s WebQoof team that the image was indeed from the casualty ward at Government Medical College and Hospital in Nagpur.
We also came across an image from GMC Nagpur shared by Twitter user Manjeet Mohanty, who identifies himself as a doctor.
The image shows the three patients in the same outfits as the ones in the viral image.
Visuals of the ward at GMC Hospital can also be seen in this report by NDTV.
WHY WAS GMC HOSPITAL OVERCROWDED?
According to reports, two or three patients were seen occupying the same bed at the Nagpur hospital as COVID-positive patients flocked to government-run hospitals to avoid the high medical fees at private hospitals.
Dr Avinash V Gawande told ANI that this "does not happen generally."
He further stated that the hospital had 900 beds.
However, patients had been coming from neighbouring districts and states, and the accommodations had to be made as it was “important to give them oxygen quickly.”
He also told NDTV that the they are increasing the number of beds and "the situation is normal now, there is single patient on a bed."
While, the image is from a hospital in Nagpur, there is shortage of beds in Gujarat as well.
According to media reports, ambulances had to wait for hours outside the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital as 2,008 COVID-19 patients were admitted in Medicity campus, which has a capacity of 2,120 beds.
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