The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday told the Legislative Council that no death due to lack of oxygen was reported in the state during the second wave of COVID-19, a claim rejected by the opposition.
The government said the death certificates made no mention of 'death due to lack of oxygen' in any of the 22,915 patients that died due to the pandemic.
Replying to a question raised by Congress MLC Deepak Singh during the Question Hour, Health Minister Jai Pratap Singh said, "No death has been reported in the state due to lack of oxygen during the second wave."
Raising a supplementary question, Deepak asked whether the government had details on similar cases that were flagged by its own ministers. "Many ministers wrote letters saying deaths are taking place due to lack of oxygen in the state. Apart from this, many MPs had also made such complaints. Many incidents of deaths due to lack of oxygen had come to light. Is there any information with the government about these deaths in the entire state? Has the government not seen the dead bodies flowing in the river Ganga and people suffering due to lack of oxygen?” he asked.
Giving clarification, Pratap said a doctor issues a death certificate in case a hospitalised patient dies. He said there was no mention of 'death due to lack of oxygen' anywhere in the 22,915 death certificates that were issued by the doctors for COVID-19 victims in the state. The minister said several deaths during the pandemic were due to various other diseases, including terminal ones, and that the government had arranged oxygen from other states when there was a shortage.
Samajwadi Party's Udayveer Singh had earlier said, "The Uttar Pradesh government took action against Paras Hospital in Agra because the video of a doctor there had gone viral... half of the patients there were given oxygen and the other half died. Oxygen supply was stopped on the instructions of the district magistrate." He sought to know when the government itself had taken action in the case, how it could make a "false statement" in the House.
In response, the minister said the district magistrate and police commissioner's investigation report mentioned about a 'mock drill' in the hospital and it was during this time that the oxygen supply had allegedly been stopped.
Udayveer objected to the minister's reply saying the "truth will not change" if the government writes "extinct" instead of "death" in the certificate. He also argued whether the letters written by the ministers on lack of oxygen, too, were false.
Leader of the House Dr Dinesh Sharma said the health minister had answered the questions that were asked. He said the members of the opposition should acknowledge that major casualties were avoided due to the "promptness" of the Uttar Pradesh government in ensuring medicines and treatment.
It may be mentioned that the Uttar Pradesh government's claim of nobody dying due to lack of oxygen is on the lines of the Central government which has also repeatedly refuted that shortage of the gas had caused deaths in the country. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya told Parliament on December 3 that only Punjab had flagged deaths due to the shortage of oxygen. The Centre has also sought to downplay the oxygen crisis on previous occasions that hit India during the devastating second wave of COVID-19. India's COVID-19 crisis had reached horrific proportions during the second wave, with hospitals being forced to turn away patients after running out of medical oxygen and beds.
The situation was so grave that hospitals sent out SOS messages about their diminishing oxygen stocks and the attendants of patients waited in long queues in the heat to get oxygen cylinders filled. The Allahabad High Court had on May 4 said that the death of coronavirus patients due to shortages of oxygen at hospitals was a "criminal act" and "not less than a genocide". The court had taken up a suo motu case on Uttar Pradesh's handling of the pandemic and made the observations based on news reports and social media posts about death of COVID-19 patients in Lucknow and Meerut. In April, the Supreme Court had issued a notice to the Centre and sought a "national plan" on oxygen and drug supply to coronavirus patients.
Meanwhile, the House proceedings were adjourned for 15 minutes with the SP members raising the demand for dismissal of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni over the Lakhimpur Kheri violence which left eight people, including four farmers, dead in October. SP's Naresh Uttam asked why Mishra had not been dismissed.
This was, however, disallowed by Chairman Manvendra Singh. The SP members barged into the well of the House carrying placards leading to a brief adjournment.