Since March 2021, at least 246 doctors have succumbed to the coronavirus infection in the second wave of the pandemic in India, confirmed the Indian Medical Association – Junior Doctors Network (IMA-JDN).
“We have documented 246 deaths of doctors till now in the second wave of the pandemic starting the first week of March till today [May 18],” Krishan Rajbhar, an ENT surgeon, and co-convenor of IMA-JDN told Gaon Connection.
Several news reports are doing the rounds on social media quoting the Indian Medical Association (IMA) for ‘269 deaths of doctors due to COVID in the second wave’. However, when Gaon Connection contacted the IMA Junior Doctors Network in New Delhi, it was informed that there was no such official statement from the association.
“No official press note on this has been issued by the IMA. So far, we have recorded 246 deaths,” said Rajbhar.
Meanwhile, in a recent press statement, the IMA had lashed out at the Union health ministry over COVID19 death data, vaccine shortage and oxygen supply issues in the country.
The association alleged that the health ministry had not taken appropriate action to deal with the second COVID-19 wave and that it should ‘wake up’ and respond to mitigate the growing challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The country registered 4,329 deaths due to the virus yesterday. Over 260,000 new infections were reported across the country.
The total active caseload stands at 3,353,765. With 603,660 active cases, Karnataka shares the highest active caseload followed by Maharashtra at 448,000 active cases.
Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the Union government’s medical advisory body, yesterday announced plasma therapy to be dropped from the clinical protocol for management of COVID-19 patients.
