Officials and ministers in eight states denied on Wednesday that an estimated 320 Covid-19 patients died due to a shortage of medical oxygen during India’s second wave of cases, despite reports to the contrary.
On Tuesday, the Union health ministry told Parliament that no states had reported any deaths due to a lack of oxygen, prompting criticism from several opposition leaders and a rebuttal from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday.
According to DataMeet, a volunteer-driven data collection effort, media reports from 20 states claimed at least 619 deaths were caused by a lack of oxygen; however, many of these claims were disputed, with subsequent inquiries attributing the deaths to other causes.
On Wednesday, however, officials and ministers in eight states refused to attribute deaths solely to a lack of oxygen, even as some of their party leaders accused the Centre of concealing oxygen-related deaths.
In Maharashtra, where 58 people died, state health minister Rajesh Tope said no one died because of a lack of oxygen.
“As far as Maharashtra is concerned, we have never said that any death due to oxygen shortage,” he told a TV channel on Wednesday. The state had, however, faced several short supplies in April and May, which at one point prompted chief minister Uddhav Thackeray to request prime minister Narendra Modi to explore the possibility of pressing the Indian Air Force into duty to arrange for supplies. Maharashtra’s Sanjay Raut on Wednesday was one of the leaders who criticised the Centre over its stand in parliament on Tuesday.
Between May 10 and 14, 83 critically ill people in Goa died as a result of Covid-19. “We can’t give you a direct answer. People who come to GMC are all referred cases because we are a tertiary (care) centre with a high level of criticality, and the majority of patients die from Covid pneumonia, which requires oxygen. So we can’t say that this (disruption in oxygen supply) is the reason they died,” said Dr Shivanand Bandekar, dean of Goa Medical College and Hospital.
