Meerut Twins, 24, Caught Covid Day After Birthday, Died Hours Apart

Joefred and Ralphred Gregory died at Meerut's Anand Hospital last week.

Joefred and Ralphred Gregory were born on April 23, 1997. The identical twins celebrated their 24th birthday this April and both caught Covid a day later. They died last week in a hospital in Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, just hours apart. On May 13, their parents Gregory Raymond and Soja Raphael, both teachers in Meerut, learnt from Anand hospital that Joefred had died of Covid. Their world collapsed around them. Ralphred, in the same hospital, called his mother and asked about his twin. Joefred had to be moved to a hospital in Delhi, he was told. "Ma, you are lying," he said, according to the Times of India. He died the next day. The death of the twins is among the most crushing stories to come out of India's devastating Covid second wave that has seen many dying from oxygen shortage.