A grieving couple walks past the queue of ambulances outside the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
A grieving couple walks past the queue of ambulances outside the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
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Ahmedabad: As Covid-19 cases rise in the country, the state of Gujarat is currently witnessing a surge in infections. People’s hardships to fight the disease reflect in the never-ending queue of ambulances outside Ahmedabad’s largest Covid facility, the Civil Hospital.

Ambulances with patients waiting inside dot the road outside this 1,200-bed facility — patients’ screams and their family members’ worried conversations present a grim scenario.

Many ambulance drivers, working 12-hour shifts, claimed that each patient has to wait for 5-6 hours, at least, to get a bed in the hospital. The families, meanwhile, said the long wait for beds begins as soon as they start making calls for an ambulance.

Ambulances in the city are also in short supply now, which sometimes means families have to wait as long as 12 hours to get one to take a patient to hospital.

As day turns to night, the queue outside the Civil Hospital only grows longer with more ambulances replacing the ones that get in.

A covid positive patient's family consoles him as he gasps for breath | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
A woman attends to a Covid patient inside an ambulance outside the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, the largest Covid facility in the city | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
Some family members wait outside the vans while their relatives wait outside | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
A family member waits outside an ambulance carrying a patient | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
A family member keeps hand on the head of a patient | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
A family member attends to a patient | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
Patients are severe symptoms are inside the ambulances | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
A patient inside an ambulance, waiting for a bed at the Civil Hospital | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
Women wearing oxygen masks inside the ambulance | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
A Covid-positive woman inside an ambulance | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
Patient wearing oxygen masks inside the ambulance | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
A patient, wearing an oxygen mask, waits inside an ambulance | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
An old woman sleeps inside the ambulance | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
An elderly woman inside an ambulance | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
An old man sits with hand on his forehead | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
An elderly man, exasperated by the long wait for a hospital bed | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
An old man feels sick inside the ambulance | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
An elderly patient inside an ambulance | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
A young man inside an ambulance van | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
A young man inside an ambulance van | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
There were young people who were also taking oxygen | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
An endless wait, both for health workers and patients | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
Most of the patients were wearing oxygen masks | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
Most of the patients inside ambulances had oxygen masks on | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
There are several people inside one ambulance | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
There was more than one person inside some ambulances | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
An old man inside lies down inside an ambulance, while a photographer stands outside | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
A photographer captures the scene around as an elderly patient waits inside an ambulance | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
As day turns into night, the line of ambulances only grows longer as new and increased number of ambulances come in to replace the older ones. | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
As day turns to night, the line of ambulances only grows longer | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint

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