Centre writes to states, seeks data on deaths due to oxygen shortage

After a political controversy over health ministry’s response in Parliament that there had been no deaths due to oxygen shortage during the second wave of Covid-19, the Centre has written to states and sought data.

The data will be collated before the Monsoon Session ends on August 13 and presented to Parliament. The health ministry has been getting numerous questions on Covid-19 deaths during the second wave. Last week, the government had triggered a political controversy when in a written reply to a question, minister of state (health and family welfare) Bharati Pravin Pawar told Rajya Sabha, “Health is a state subject.

However, no deaths due to lack of oxygen have been specifically reported by states and Union Territories.” This had caused an uproar with Opposition-ruled states like Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi pointing out that the government had not sought this data. In Delhi, two hospitals – Batra hospital and Jaipur Golden – had reported deaths due to oxygen shortage.


ET had first reported in its July 23 edition how hospitals did not have any proforma to report oxygen shortage deaths. Batra hospital medical director had told ET that the hospitals could still provide oxygen shortage deaths data. While Batra hospital had reported 12 deaths, Jaipur Golden had 21 deaths. Jaipur Golden, however, has denied that these deaths were because of oxygen shortage.

In Goa, over 80 people died at a state-run medical facility over five days in May. In Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, 11 Covid patients admitted to the ICU of a hospital lost their lives after supply was disrupted. At a Hyderabad facility, seven succumbed at a government hospital during a two-hour cut in supply. Several states went to court over oxygen sharing, while the government flagged off Oxygen Express trains to ensure supplies.

Even on Tuesday, the health ministry put the onus of oxygen shortage on the state governments and hospital administration. In a written reply to a question posed by Congress MP Amee Yajnik on whether the government had conducted an oxygen audit, the ministry replied, “The supply of medical oxygen to hospitals is determined by contractual arrangements between the concerned hospital and the medical oxygen supplier…"