States did not specifically report any deaths due to oxygen shortages during the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic in India, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
The health minister was responding to questions from Congress MP KC Venugopal on whether it was true that many Covid patients died on roads and hospitals due to shortages of oxygen and what steps the government has taken now to ensure that there would be no scarcity of the life-saving gas during the imminent third wave of infections.
India struggled with a grave oxygen crisis in the second wave of the pandemic. The shortages of the life-saving gas forced families and friends of patients to plead for help on social media. Hospitals sent out SOS messages as their oxygen stocks ran dangerously low.
On May 1, at least 12 patients died at Batra Hospital in Delhi after the facility fell short of oxygen. The hospital had confirmed that the deaths had taken place because of lack of…