Hundreds died due to O2 shortage during 2nd wave in UP: BJP MLA

Hardoi: A BJP MLA here claimed that "hundreds of people died" due to lack of oxygen during the second Covid wave, days after his party's Union government told Parliament that states did not report such deaths.

BJP's Gopamau MLA Shyam Prakash wrote this on the Facebook wall of journalist Anand Mishra, who had posted newspaper cuttings of letters of some MLAs, in which the issue was raised. "You have told the truth, I agree with you, hundreds of people died in agony due to lack of oxygen. No one can see the pain of lakhs of families, including that of MLA Rajkumar Agarwal," the MLA said. Agarwal, a BJP MLA from Sandila, had lost his son during the second coronavirus wave and had alleged negligence on the part of the hospital. Shyam Prakash, however, told reporters that he had not written about Uttar Pradesh when he made the comment on the Facebook wall of the scribe.

The Union Government had last week told the Rajya Sabha that no deaths due to lack of oxygen were reported by states and UTs during the second COVID-19 wave.

Several BJP leaders had complained of mismanagement during the second coronavirus wave, with even former Union minister Santosh Gangwar writing to CM Yogi Adityanath about the situation in his Bareilly constituency. He said officials don't take calls and government health centres send back patients for "referrals" from the district hospital. He had also complained about the shortage of empty oxygen cylinders and high prices of medical equipment in Bareilly. Meanwhile, the UP CM Yogi Adityanath has put the state on alert mode in view of the possible third wave of the pandemic.

The government spokesman said on Tuesday that the government is sparing no efforts to expand all the healthcare facilities for children across the state and making fool proof arrangements including paediatric ICUs and Neonatal ICUs in every medical college and district hospital.

More than 10,000 paediatric ICUs (PICU) have been established in the state. Considering fears that third wave will affect children more, paediatric ICUs have been increased to 6,522 in medical colleges across Uttar Pradesh.

Besides, over 3,000 PICUs and isolation wards have been prepared in the other government hospitals.

With four more deaths, the toll in Uttar Pradesh increased to 22,754, while 36 fresh cases pushed the tally to 17,08,226 in the state, according to a statement.

Of the four fatalities, two were reported from Unnao, while one death each was reported from Ghazipur and Kannauj, the Uttar Pradesh government said in the statement. It said that among the 36 fresh cases, four were reported from Deoria, while three cases each were reported from Allahabad, Gautam Buddh Nagar and Barabanki. In the past 24 hours, 73 COVID-19 patients recovered from the disease, taking the total number of patients discharged so far in the state to 16,84,674. There are 798 active cases in the state, the statement said. In the past 24 hours, more than 2.25 lakh samples were tested. So far, over 6.45 crore samples have been tested in the state, it said.