Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, May 11: Even as India registered sharp declines both in the number of new cases and fatalities on Tuesday, at least 26 Covid-19 patients died in Goa and 11 in Andhra Pradesh presumably due to problems in oxygen supply.
While the Andhra Pradesh government straightway attributed the deaths to oxygen supply, the BJP government in Goa had some hesitations to admit problems in oxygen supply and insisted that there was “no shortage” in oxygen supply in the state. It said only the “gap” between the availability of oxygen and its supply “might have caused some problems for the patients.” The government suggested an “investigation” by the Goa High Court to “ascertain the causes of the deaths of 26 Covid-19 patients in the state-run Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH).
The union health ministry said on Tuesday that India recorded 3,29,942 fresh Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours with 3,876 fatalities, a decline from the maximum of 4.14 lakh new cases registered on Friday when the fatalities were also above 4,000 a day.
The Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said 26 COVID-19 patients died at the GMCH in the early hours of Tuesday and sought an investigation by the High Court to find out the “exact cause.”
He said these fatalities occurred between 2 am and 6 am “which is a fact,” but remained evasive about the cause.
The Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who visited the GMCH, said the gap between the “availability of medical oxygen and its supply to COVID-19 wards in the GMCH might have caused some issues for the patients” even as he stressed that there was no scarcity of oxygen supply in the state.
But Rane admitted the shortfall in the supply of medical oxygen at the GMCH as of Monday. He told the media, “The high court should investigate the reasons behind these deaths. The high court should also intervene and prepare a white paper on oxygen supply to the GMCH, which would help to set the things right,” the state Health Minister said after Chief Minister’s visit to the hospital.
Rane said the medical oxygen requirement of the facility as of Monday was 1,200 jumbo cylinders of which only 400 were supplied.
“If there’s a shortfall in the supply of medical oxygen, the discussion should be held about how to bridge that gap,” he said.
Rane said a three-member team of nodal officers set up by the state government to oversee COVID-19 treatment at the GMCH should give its inputs about the issues to the Chief Minister.
Earlier in the day, the Chief Minister donning a PPE kit visited COVID-19 wards in the GMCH where he met patients and their relatives. “There are issues over the availability of oxygen in these wards which need to be sorted out,” the Chief Minister said. He announced the setting up of a ward-wise mechanism to ensure a smooth supply of medical oxygen.
“Doctors, who are busy treating patients, cannot spend their time in arranging logistics like oxygen. I will hold a meeting immediately to set up ward-wise mechanisms to ensure that oxygen is supplied to patients in time,” Sawant said. The Chief Minister said there was no dearth of medical oxygen and cylinders in the state but the problem arises sometimes as these cylinders do not reach their destinations on time. “We have abundant supplies of (medical) oxygen. There is no scarcity in the state,” he said.
In Andhra Pradesh, Chittoor district Collector M Hari Narayanan said at least 11 Covid-19 patients died due to a problem in oxygen supply inside the ICU in Andhra Pradesh government-run Ruia Hospital late on Monday night. “There was a five-minute lag in reloading the oxygen cylinder that caused the pressure to drop, resulting in the deaths,” he said.
“The oxygen supply was restored within five minutes and everything is now normal. Because of this, we could prevent more casualties,” Hari Narayanan added.
About 30 doctors were immediately rushed into the ICU to attend to the patients.
The Collector said there was no scarcity of oxygen in the hospital and adequate supply was in place. In all, about 700 Covid-19 patients were undergoing treatment in the ICU and oxygen beds in Ruia while another 300 were in normal wards.
Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy expressed grief over the incident. He spoke to the district collector and directed that a detailed investigation be conducted into the incident.
Meanwhile, the union health ministry releasing the Covid data pointed out that in the past 19 days India’s daily Covid tally has risen by over three lakh cases and over 3,000 casualties have been reported for the last 13 days.
India’s total tally of Covid-19 cases now stands at 2,29,92,517 with 37,15,221 active cases and a total of 2,49,992 deaths so far.
According to the Health Ministry, a total of 3,56,082 people have been discharged in the last 24 hours, while 1,90,27,304 people have been cured from Covid till date.
The Health Ministry said a total of 17,27,10,066 people have been vaccinated so far in the country, including 25,03,756 who were administered vaccines in the last 24 hours.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 30,56,00,187 samples have been tested up to May 10 for Covid-19. Of these 18,50,110 samples were tested on Monday
Addressing the media, the union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said there were 13 states which have more than 1 lakh active cases of Covid-19.
The Union health ministry said on Tuesday that early trend of decline in daily new cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and related fatalities has been noted in India. He said the number of daily cases of Covid-19 are on decline in at least 18 states and union territories.
“More than 1 lakh active cases are there in 13 states, 50,000 to 1 lakh active cases in six states and less than 50,000 active cases in 17 states,” he said.
Bhushan said the states and UTs where Covid-19 cases are falling are Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Telangana, Chandigarh, Ladakh, Daman and Diu, Lakshadweep and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
The states and UTwhich are still a matter of concern are Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Odisha, Punjab, Assam, J&K, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Puducherry, Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh which are showing continued increasing trend in daily new cases of Covid-19, Bhushan said.
The health ministry official also said that 26 states still have a positivity rate of more than 15 per cent.
