A severe shortage of oxygen on Tuesday, April 27, reportedly led to the deaths of at least seven COVID patients in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut. Three of them died at a private facility, Anand Hospital while the rest breathed their last at the KMC hospital.
Amid several reports of lack of oxygen supply, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has continued to assert that there is no such shortage in the state.
Hospitals in Meerut, however, have asked several patients' families to arrange for oxygen themselves, NDTV reported.
Anand Hospital
Medical Superintendent of Anand Hospital Subhash Yadav was quoted as saying, "We need 400 cylinders every day, but we are getting only 90."
He added that the oxygen shortage has been "continuous" and disclosed that the hospital has been forced to turn away critical patients who need high-pressure oxygen.
Yadav further said, “Yesterday, our oxygen supply ran out, due to which three patients admitted in the hospital died.”
KMC Hospital
Chief of KMC Hospital Sunil Gupta said that they lost four patients on Tuesday and three patients the day before.
He said, “Yesterday (Tuesday), we had no oxygen from noon till 8 pm. If we had oxygen, we would have been able to save them.”
The doctor said that the trouble was the management of oxygen. He further claimed that the shortage has been a “daily problem”.
As reported by NDTV, 28-year-old Mohammed Kasim, whose COVID-positive mother is in the hospital, had to get an oxygen cylinder from Haryana's Karnal 110 km away, at a cost of Rs 25,000. The hospital had asked the family to take back the patient or arrange for oxygen themselves.
As per the state’s health department figures of 25 April, Uttar Pradesh has had more than 11,165 deaths recorded so far.
Five districts had over 10,000 active cases on April 25. Lucknow had 52,068 cases, Varanasi 17,321, Kanpur 16,916, Prayagraj 16,333 and Meerut recorded 11,455 cases.
(With inputs from NDTV.)
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