AGRA/AMRITSAR: Two minor boys, one suffering from abdominal ailment in Agra and the other with breathing problems in Pathankot, died allegedly after being turned away by multiple hospitals in their respective cities. In both cases, doctors were “reluctant” to touch patients whose Covid-19 status wasn’t known.Nihal Singh, 12, a student of Class V in Agra, was refused admission by six private hospitals, his father said. The boy was undergoing treatment for stomach ache since January. On April 24, after Nihal developed acute pain, his father Lakhan took him to the hospitals but they all refused to take him. After exhausting all options, the child was rushed to the government SN Medical College. But doctors there allegedly asked Lakhan to put the child in the isolation ward meant for Covid-19 patients. Lakhan questioned the doctors over this as his son was suffering from a stomach-related ailment and had no Covid-19 symptoms.“So, the next day, we again took him to a private hospital, the sixth one, but doctors there, too, wouldn’t admit him,” he told TOI. “We then approached police and district administration for help. They asked us to go back to SN Medical College,” Nihal’s cousin Pradeep said. The boy was declared “brought dead” at the medical college. The family has written to UP CM Yogi Adityanath seeking action against the hospitals. Indian Medical Association’s Agra unit denied the allegation. “The boy had to be kept in quarantine as a precautionary measure but the family refused and took him away without treatment,” it said.In Pathankot, another boy, 7, died on Tuesday after doctors in six hospitals, including two government ones, refused to treat him. The child was suffering from respiratory problems. Dr Dheeraj Singh, a London-based medical practitioner on a visit home, said the child, Krishna, was the son of Upinder Joshi, his father’s employee. Krishna had some blockage which Dheeraj couldn’t examine as he did not have any equipment. “Though I was trying to revive the child, he needed a specialist’s attention,” Dheeraj said. “He died on his way to the seventh hospital ” Pathankot civil surgeon Dr Vinod Sareen denied any negligence on the part of the staff.