No Oxygen death flagged by states during second Covid wave, claims govt

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 20

The government on Tuesday told Parliament that states and UTs had not reported any specific Covid-19 deaths on account of lack of oxygen.

The reply came in response to a question by Congress Rajya Sabha MP KC Venugopal who asked the Health Ministry whether a large number of Covid patients had died on roads and hospitals due to acute shortage of oxygen during the second wave.

In her reply, Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar said, “Health is a state subject. Detailed guidelines for reporting deaths have been issued by the Union Health Ministry to all states and UTs. Accordingly, deaths are being reported on a regular basis, but no deaths due to lack of oxygen have been specifically reported by states/UTs.”

Not satisfied with the reply, Venugopal said he would move a privilege notice against the MoS for “misleading the House”.

The government admitted that the demand for medical oxygen peaked at nearly 9,000 metric tonne during the second wave as compared to 3,095 metric tonne last year.

In reply to a related query, the government said 1,20,770 persons died of Covid in May this year. This marks a 29-fold rise compared to 4,076 deaths in May last year. Likewise, there were 45,862 deaths in April this year when the second wave had started building up. This is a massive 44-fold rise over 1,029 deaths recorded in April last year.