In an unsettling claim, the Centre has said that it has no data on deaths due to oxygen shortage.?
During the second wave of COVID, numerous deaths were reported from hospitals across the country, with states seeking oxygen aid from states that had oxygen surplus.
Health is a state subject and states and UTs regularly report the number of cases and deaths to the Centre, junior health minister Bharati Praveen Pawar had said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.
"However, no deaths due to lack of oxygen have been specifically reported by states and UTs," Pawar added, responding to the question on whether Covid patients died on roads and hospitals due to oxygen shortage.
The central government, however, mentioned that there was an unprecedented surge in demand for medical oxygen during the second wave and it peaked at nearly 9,000 MT compared to 3,095 MT in the first wave following which the Centre had to step in to facilitate equitable distribution among the states.??
Responding to a question on whether a large number of Covid-19 patients died on roads and hospitals due to acute shortage of oxygen in the second wave, Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar noted that health is a state subject and states and UTs regularly report the number of cases and deaths to the Centre.
Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said there have been many deaths due to oxygen shortage in Delhi and many other places across the country.
"If there was no shortage of oxygen, why did hospitals move court? Hospitals and the media had been flagging oxygen shortage issues daily. Television channels showed how hospitals were running out of the life-saving gas. It is completely false to say that no one died due to oxygen shortage. There have been many deaths due to oxygen shortage in Delhi and many other places across the country," he said.
Responding to the criticism, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said, "Centre says that Health is a State/UT subject. It says that it just collects the data sent by States/UTs, it doesn't generate data."
On May 1, Delhi's Batra Hospital said that 12 patients died due to oxygen related issues.
"Six patients in the ICU¡ died while we were struggling to get the oxygen supply restored. Two other patients admitted in the wards have also died. There were at least four others whom we managed to resuscitate at that point, but they died of complications caused by oxygen shortage minutes later, said Dr SCL Gupta, the hospital's medical director.
According to reports, at least 83 people died in Goa due to oxygen-related issues between May 11 and 15, with maximum deaths (26) occurring on the first day.
In Karnataka, as many as 24 patients died in Chamrajanagar district on May 2 and 3 due to acute shortage of medical supply. A panel formed by the Karnataka high court concluded that in fact 36 patients, and not 24, had died due to lack of oxygen.
In Andhra Pradesh, 45 COVID patients lost their lives due to lack of medical oxygen in the state.
In Haryana, the government had ordered a probe into at least 19 deaths which had occurred due to oxygen shortage between April 5 and May 1.
At least seven COVID patients reportedly died in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut on 27 April.
India's health infrastructure crumbled as demand for beds, oxygen and medicines rose quickly during the second wave.
Social media was flooded with desperate pleas for help from both families and doctors as patients gasped for breath.