India claims no deaths reported due oxygen shortages during Covid 2nd wave
New Delhi, Dec 16 (EFE).- India on Thursday denied that oxygen shortages in Uttar Pradesh state during the second wave of Covid-19 that hit the Asian country in May led to any deaths.
Uttar Pradesh’s minister of health Jai Pratap Singh said that none of the almost 23,000 people who died in the northern state since the start of the pandemic had a lack of oxygen as the cause in their death certificates.
Singh added that local authorities supplied oxygen amid a shortage of medical supplies to the region, which had recorded as many as 35,000 cases and more than 370 deaths a day.
In June, a video was leaked showing a director of a regional hospital detailing an alleged simulation, which involved cutting off oxygen to patients, to find out what would happen in the event of a supply crisis, triggering a wave of outrage online.
The incident allegedly took place in April, when the country was going through a dramatic crisis due to oxygen shortages that left several hospitals without supplies and led to the deaths of dozens of patients.
At the time, a hospital in New Delhi reported the deaths of 20 coronavirus patients due to oxygen shortages.
In mid-May, when the country was recording 400,000 cases and 4,500 deaths a day, at least 11 patients died in southern India after a tanker carrying oxygen arrived late.
This is not the first time that deaths due to a lack of oxygen have been denied in India. In July, the government said in a statement that there were no reports of Covid-19 patients dying due to the lack of oxygen supply in the second wave. EFE
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