Raipur: The Chhattisgarh government will re-audit deaths recorded during the second wave of COVID-19 in the state to ascertain if any of the patients succumbed due to a shortage of medical oxygen, health minister T.S. Singh Deo said on Friday.
He claimed the Centre never sought data on COVID-19 deaths due to lack of oxygen from the state and there was no record of such fatality in the Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh so far.
On July 20, the central government said in the Rajya Sabha that no deaths due to lack of oxygen were specifically reported by states and UTs during the second wave of COVID-19, triggering criticism from opposition parties.
We have already been conducting an audit of COVID-19-related deaths and we will do it again with this perspective in mind (to find out if any of the deaths occurred due to lack of oxygen), Singh Deo told PTI.
We are expanding our public audit to get all information on any death in hospitals or outside due to a shortage of oxygen during the second wave of COVID-19 in the state,” he said.
Transparency is core of a democratically-elected government and “we shall follow the Congress’s commitment towards transparency,” he said.
The minister has requested NGOs, members of civil society and journalists of the state to inform the government if they have come across death of any coronavirus patient due to medical oxygen shortage.
Hitting out at the Centre, Singh Deo said, Now the Centre is saying in Parliament that states have told them (that no deaths occurred due to lack of oxygen). How would we have told them if they never asked us about it? The Congress minister accused the central government of misleading Parliament on the issue.
The Centre never sought data on deaths due to lack of oxygen. The Centre has deliberately misled Parliament without checking with states,” he said.
The minister urged the Centre to conduct a similar audit of deaths to get record of such instances and develop a robust plan to avoid any future tragedies.
In Chhattisgarh, we have so far no such record (of deaths due to lack of oxygen) either in government or private hospitals. Though, we had received complaints in this regard, they had not been substantiated. We will audit deaths again to dispel all doubts,” Singh Deo added.
Claiming Chhattisgarh was surplus in terms of the life-saving gas, the minister said the oxygen production capacity of the state was 388.87 metric tonne, while the peak consumption reported was 180 MT on April 26.
The second wave of coronavirus started in the state in mid-March. Since March 15 and till July 22, as many as 9,617 patients have died due to the viral infection in the state, as per official figures. PTI TKP RSY
