Covid patients in Andhra Pradesh died due to oxygen shortage during 2nd wave

New Delhi, Aug 11: The centre has confirmed that oxygen shortage had caused deaths in Andhra Pradesh during the second wave of Covid-19 cases.

"As per the preliminary inquiry incident report, it appears that the interval between the leveling out of 10KL oxygen tank and the switching on of the backup manifold system of this hospital resulted in the drop in pressure in the oxygen lines," Minister of State (MoS) for Health Bharti Pawar said in a written response.

The government has stated that only one state has till now reported 'suspected' death due to oxygen shortage during the second wave of COVID-19 after the Centre sought data from them on such fatalities following the raising of the issue in Parliament.

'When the question was raised in Parliament, states were specifically asked this question and as per reports received only one state mentioned suspected death and no state has so far said that there were deaths because of oxygen shortage,' Joint Secretary in the Union Health Ministry Lav Agarwal said while replying to a query at a press conference.

Sources told PTI 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.

Last month, opposition parties had hit out at the government for informing Parliament that no deaths due to oxygen shortage have been specifically reported by states and Union Territories during the second COVID-19 wave.

The Centre recently had sought from states and Union Territories data on deaths in connection with oxygen shortage during the second of COVID-19 earlier this year and the information was to be collated and presented in Parliament before the Monsoon session ends on August 13.

Agarwal said the whole country faced a one of its kind challenge related to oxygen, and while the availability was 2,000-3,000 metric tonnes, it rose to 9,000 metric tonnes.