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Mumbai, June 9: A 45-year-old doctor posted in the 108 ambulance service at Malad railway station in Mumbai died of COVID-19 after two hospitals refused admission, in spite of the fact that he was a frontline warrior against coronavirus.

The victim is Dr Shaukat Ali, who was working with the 108 ambulance service for the last four years. A few days ago, he got his blood tests done after his health deteriorated. The result stated typhoid fever following which he started getting treatment at home in Malwani.

Ali's family ran from pillar to post to get him hospitalised in either a private or government hospital, to no avail.

"On Friday, his condition worsened and he started feeling breathless. Despite us calling the 108 ambulance service, no one picked up the call. So after waiting for a while, I and uncle's colleague, Dr Nigam, rushed him to SK Patil hospital in Malad East in an auto. But they refused us stating they were admitting only COVID-19 patients.”

“Then we took him to Desai Hospital, where doctors were initially ready to admit him but later refused stating lack of beds. They said we could take him home as his condition was fine," Zubair Shaikh, Ali's nephew said.

"But his condition worsened. So, I called Dr Nigam and we managed to admit him in Shatabdi hospital. On Sunday, when his results came out stating that he had COVID-19, doctors had already put him on a ventilator, where he passed away in the evening," he added.

Zubair further said, "Had the doctors at Desai Memorial Hospital admitted him, my uncle would have been alive today. It is a matter of great regret that a doctor, who was risking his life during this pandemic, could not get help from his own government hospitals."

Ali's wife and his two children's are in UP, while he was staying with his elder daughter who had recently appeared for HSC exams and preparing for NEET.

We came on foot, we came on boats, shouting slogans of Azadi.

We stood on roof tops and sat on walls under the burning midday sun,

Listening to the words that we had longed to hear for so long.

Words that had been scripted through the lonely fears of our hearts.

Words that were spoken now with the clarity of courage.

Words that were spoken now with the suppressed strength of pent up anger.

Words that were spoken now with the certainty of belonging to the soil 

Which had become one with the dust of our ancestors.

We stood there in the waves of heat

Feeling the surge and press  of countless bodies around us.

Bodies meshed through the odour of sweat 

And the shared fear of a common persecution.

And hanging from the roof tops,

And tied to the poles,

And clutched in hands slippery with sweat,

And wrapped round the pillars,

And spreading into our blood,

Were three strips of colour with a wheel of spokes,

Sewn together into the shape of our being.

Woven into the folds of our future and the creases of our past. 

Stitched to the seams of the earth, the water, the air and the sky 

That belonged to us and to which we belonged. 

And we stood there from noon to evening,

We the people of India.

Raising our clenched fists like signposts to the future.

Chanting slogans like a new anthem.

Kin to each other through the ties of community.

Born to live and die 

In a nation that was ours to hold on to

And ours to belong to.

Dr Parinitha is a professor of English in Mangalore University. She penned the poem soon after participating in the historic protest against CAA, NPR and NRC at Shah Garden, Adyar, Mangaluru on 15th January, 2020.

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Bengaluru, Jun 25: A total of 442 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Karnataka on Thursday taking the total count of cases in the state to 10,560.

According to the State Health Department, there are 3,716 active cases and 6,670 patients have been discharged after treatment. Six more deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 170.

India's COVID-19 count reached 4,73,105 on Thursday with the highest single-day spike of 16,922 cases in the last 24 hours.