In the video, three blue body bags can be seen lying on stretchers in a corner of coronavirus ward.
Nitesh Rane, an MLA in Maharashtra's opposition BJP, has tweeted a second video of body bags lying in a coronavirus hospital ward and hit out at Mumbai civic body Brihanmumbai Corporation, which is in charge of the city's COVID-19 response . The video, he said, is from the KEM hospital - located 5 km from the Sion Hospital, where the first set of body bags were seen inside a ward. The hospital said the video was filmed within the 20-minute "time lag" it takes to shift bodies to the mortuary.
"KEM hospital today at 7 am ! I think the @mybmc wants us to get used to seeing dead bodies around us while taking treatment bcz they just don't want to improve! Feel bad for the health workers too who hv to work in such conditions!! Is there any hope?" read Mr Rane's tweet.
In the attached video, three blue body bags can be seen lying on stretchers in a corner of the ward, where every bed is occupied.
"In the pre-COVID era, when any person died the body was kept in the ward for upto two hours as per medico-legal code," said Dr Hemant Deshmukh, the Dean of KEM Hospital.
"There is always a time lag of 30 minutes from the time of death to shifting to the mortuary,.. In this video, the body that you see was moved to the mortuary within 20 minutes and the video was clicked very early in the morning by a patient," he said, adding, "Nowadays, most of the family is in quarantine so it takes some time for families to arrive".
Body bags, he said, stop the spread of the infection . "We pack the bodies after chemical treatment. There is misconception that these are just plastic bags. These are special bags for packing bodies. The body bag is impervious and no-infection can spread," he added.
Guardian Minister for Mumbai City Aslam Shaikh, however, said, "It is unfortunate that the Opposition is going so low by showing false videos. No death has taken place KEM Hospital today. And videos are shared that this morning dead bodies are lying next to the patient."
He added, "It's a COVID ward. You have to inform the relatives. By the time the relative comes the Death Certificate has to be prepared. It takes half an hour to two hours. Its normal procedure. By taking videos and claiming bodies are lying for hours and days is not true."
Maharashtra currently has more than 20,000 cases of coronavirus, which is one-third of the total cases in the country. Of these, over 12,000 cases are from Mumbai, the thickly populated financial capital of the country. On Friday, Praveen Pardeshi, chief of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation -- which is in charge of the city's COVID-19 response -- was replaced by Iqbal Chahal.
The crisis has also sharpened the BJP attacks on the state's Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress coalition government.
Last Wednesday, Mr Rane had posted the video of Sion hospital, where at least seven bodies could be seen in the ward. The accompanying post read: "In Sion hospital, patients are sleeping next to dead bodies!!! This is the extreme...what kind of administration is this! Very very shameful!!"
The Sion Hospital had said the bodies were unattended as the relatives of the deceased were reluctant to accept them.
On why the bodies were not shifted to a mortuary, hospital dean Pramod Ingale said, "There are 15 slots in the hospitals mortuary, of which 11 are already filled. If we shift all the bodies to the mortuary, it will be a problem for bodies of those who died of causes other than COVID-19." The hospital said it was investigating the matter.