India: Man cycles 12 km to take injured wife to hospital amid COVID-19 lockdown
Punjab resident says he could not pay ambulance drivers Rs2,000 for journey to hospital
Ludhiana: A man in Punjab’s Ludhiana carried his injured wife on a bicycle for 12km from Bharat Nagar to reach the hospital in Kanganwal amid complete lockdown in the country.
The man alleged that the ambulance drivers who agreed to take him to the hospital were asking him to pay Rs 2,000 (Dh98).
“Nobody was ready to drive us to the hospital due to the lockdown. Ambulance drivers were asking for Rs 2,000 which I could not pay, so I had to carry her on my bicycle,” Devdutt Ram, husband of the injured woman said.
The woman got injured during an accident which occurred on March 20 while she was working at a factory.
Ram said, “When the accident took place, factory workers admitted her to a government hospital in Bharat Nagar. Doctors, there were taking x-rays of her chest instead of treating her leg. They said that her lungs have filled up with water. So I came to Kanganwal.”
India on Thursday reported 88 new COVID-19 cases, which is the highest in a single day, taking the total countrywide tally to 694, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
The number of people who have been cured or discharged stands at 44 while the active COVID-19 cases stand at 633. Sixteen people have died from the disease while one case has migrated, as per the ministry.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced a 21-day lockdown in the entire country to deal with the spread of coronavirus, saying that “social distancing” is the only option to deal with the disease, which spreads rapidly.