Photo of elderly woman sitting on road with oxygen cylinder was taken before pandemic

India has seen a huge surge in the number of COVID positive cases in the past few weeks. On April 20, the country reported close to 3 lakh new cases. The second wave has overwhelmed citizens, with many among those severely affected unable to get ICU beds or oxygen cylinders.

The official handle of the Tipu Sultan Party shared an image where an elderly lady is seen sitting on the road with an oxygen cylinder. “India suffers in coronavirus pandemic,” reads its caption.

We never thought that the condition of our India would be like this,

#कोरोना_काल_देश_बेहाल pic.twitter.com/sS1HNuBQ2a

— Tipu Sultan Party ٹیپو سلطان پارٹی (@TSP4India) April 20, 2021

Prithvi Reddy of the Aam Aadmi Party also shared this picture.

Several other Twitter users including @vijaypks51, @Sachin88617922 and @biharnumber1 have shared the image, claiming it was taken during the pandemic.

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Old image 

A reverse image search of the viral image on Yandex led us to a report by India Times published on April 7, 2018. The report is credited to ANI. According to the report, the woman was waiting for an ambulance within the premises of Agra Medical College. An oxygen mask was put on her while her son carried the oxygen cylinder on his shoulder.

ANI had also covered the incident on a video report.

This incident was reported by NDTV, The Times of India and News18.

While the image is not recent, there are several visuals of patients waiting to get admitted to a hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic.

.@ArvindKejriwal @msisodia @dilipkpandey, sir a very serious patient is waiting outside Lok Nayak Hospital. Hospital has turned them back saying we don’t have any oxygen or ICU beds available. Patient’s oxygen saturation is below 50. He’s gasping for breath. Please do something pic.twitter.com/Oedtszrqfz

— Tanushree Pandey (@TanushreePande) April 20, 2021

Varanasi. The heart wrenching images of people dying due to lack of medical care later robbed of dignity in death. All this in the VVIP constituency. pic.twitter.com/v5MWom73jz

— Piyush Rai (@Benarasiyaa) April 20, 2021

Alt News had earlier debunked an image of a man carrying an oxygen cylinder and his COVID positive mother on a motorcycle. The image is from Bangladesh. Another image of mass cremation from 2012 was shared as recent.