Oxygen Shortage: Patients died due to oxygen shortage in country, says Centre

Some people died in the second wave of covid due to lack of oxygen in Andhra Pradesh. Some patients were on ventilator support. They died in the second wave, the Union Health Ministry told Parliament on Tuesday. This is the first time this has been acknowledged by the central government. In the second wave of corona, patients had died due to lack of oxygen in the country.

The Union Ministry of Health said that the Central Government has been informed by the Andhra Pradesh Government on August 9, 202 which is being tabled in Parliament. On May 10, 2021, some patients at SVRR Hospital were on ventilator support. Some of the patients had died. Initial investigations revealed that changes in the oxygen tank and backup system reduced the pressure in the oxygen supply. This caused the patient difficulty in breathing.

A few days back, the Center had said in Parliament that, according to information received from the state government, no patient had died due to lack of oxygen across the country.But the state government had acknowledged that the second wave of corona posed an oxygen crisis. However, this was not the cause of death of any patient.

Opposition groups called for a boycott of the assembly. The BJP was claiming that the information provided by the state government was presented by the central government in Parliament.

Not only the opposition but also the BJP leaders had started openly critizing the government after the Union Minister said that there were no deaths due to oxygen shortage.

The central government had also taken stern action on the issue. The Modi government demanded real figures from the state governments. Sources said the state government had asked for statistics on the number of patients who died due to lack of oxygen in the second wave of corona. It was said that the death toll due to lack of oxygen in the second wave of corona in the country could be presented only in the monsoon session, but finally the figures were presented in Parliament.

Congress MP KC Venugopal had questioned the government in the Rajya Sabha on the issue of deaths of corona patients due to lack of oxygen.

The health ministry said no patient had died in the second wave of corona in the country due to lack of oxygen. In the second wave, the central government has supplied 10,250 metric tonnes of oxygen till May 28.

The maximum supply of 1,200 metric tonnes of oxygen was provided to the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka, while 400 metric tonnes of oxygen was supplied to Delhi, the Center had informed Parliament.