Andhra Pradesh informed the Centre that some patients on ventilator support died while undergoing treatment for Covid-19 because of low oxygen pressure, a source told News18 on Wednesday. This is the first time that a state has accepted deaths due to O2 shortage.
The Centre had recently sought from states and Union Territories data on deaths in connection with oxygen shortage during the second wave of Covid-19 earlier this year.
News agency PTI quoted its sources as saying that 13 states and UTs including Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab have responded. They said only Punjab has reported four “suspected” deaths due to oxygen shortage.
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 Praveen Pawar on July 20 in a written reply in Rajya Sabha had said that health is a state subject.
“Detailed guidelines for reporting of deaths have been issued by the Union Health Ministry to all states and UTs. Accordingly, all states and UTs report cases and deaths to the Union Health Ministry on a regular basis. However, no deaths due to lack of oxygen has been specifically reported by states and UTs,” Pawar had said.
(details awaited)
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