Indian Medical Association has reported that 1,302 doctors have been infected with Covid-19 and 99 have succumbed to the disease across the country. Amid this, an image of a doctor from AIIMS, New Delhi, is going viral with the claim that he got infected with coronavirus after giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a critical Covid-19 patient.

The image of Dr. Zahid Majeed was shared on a Facebook page with a caption, "The man in this picture is Dr. Zahid Majeed, a doctor at AIIMS trauma center. He is now in quarantine as he is infected by #coronavirus. The reason he caught by #COVID19 is, he removed his PPE kit to give mouth to mouth resuscitation to an extremely critical Corona patient which could prevent a cardiac arrest. After hearing the news, his father from Kashmir told him over the phone "Zahid if you succumb to Corona, we will not mourn you. Samjhoonga ki Mera beta ek mareez ki Jaan bachaate hue shaheed ho Gaya". Zahid replied "Abba aaj mere mann se aapne ek bojh utaar Diiya". Let's salute their sense of humanity."

This post has been shared over 470 times. 

The same image was shared by an Instagram user named Dr. Akram Ahmad with the same caption. 

The truth behind the claim 

We found this claim to be false. It was confirmed that Dr Zahid Majeed was not infected with coronavirus, and he did not give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a Covid-19 patient.

India Today reached out to, Dr. Zahid Abdul Majeed, who is from Jammu & Kashmir’s Anantnag district is a senior resident doctor at AIIMS. Dr. Zahid was quoted saying, "The doctor, who joined duty after 14 days of quarantine, said, “The incident they are talking about is from May 7. A Covid-19 patient was being shifted to ICU and his breathing tube was mal-positioned. I had removed my goggles and face shield for better visibility and re-intubated the patient. Without immediate intervention, the patient would have got a cardiac arrest. I never gave the patient mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.”

Dr. Zahid further added, “After this, I went into a 14-day quarantine because I was exposed to an infected patient. Now I am back on duty. I was never tested positive for Covid-19.”

The claim went viral after some news reports stated that the doctor removed his personal protective equipment (PPE) to re-intubate the patient. 

In conclusion, the claim that Dr. Zahid gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a coronavirus patient is false. It has been confirmed that Dr. Zahid had not tested positive for COVID-19. He had re-intubated a critical patient by removing his goggles and face shield for better visibility.