No deaths due to oxygen shortage in Haryana: Govt tells Assembly

No deaths due to a lack of oxygen have been reported in Haryana during the Covid pandemic, the state government informed the assembly on Friday.

In a written reply to a question, Health Minister Anil Vij said the state has reported a total of 9,665 Covid-related deaths till August 20.

“No deaths due to a lack of oxygen has been reported in the state,” Vij said in his reply to a question by Congress MLA Aftab Ahmed who sought to know if anyone had died due to oxygen shortage amid the ongoing pandemic.

Ahmed asked the government to reveal the district wise deaths which occurred due to coronavirus pandemic from March 24, 2020 to July 31, 2021. He also asked the state government to disclose the district wise deaths due to lack of oxygen during the period.

The House was informed that during the period, a maximum of 1,037 Covid-related deaths had been reported from Hisar while 919 fatalities were from Gurgaon.

In a reply to another related question during Question Hour, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar informed the Assembly that so far no Covid patient has died due to lack of oxygen in the state.

However, Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda claimed the government was hiding the actual number of deaths due to coronavirus and lack of oxygen.

Also read: India approves Zydus Cadila's Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use for adults, children over 12

“The government should form a high-level committee to find out the exact figure of deaths. The government should tell what lessons it has learnt from the damage done during the first and second waves. If the third wave comes, how many doctors, nursing staff have been recruited to deal with it,” Hooda said.

Spelling out steps taken by the government to tackle the surge in demand of medical oxygen, Khattar told the House that adequate arrangements were made for ensuring uninterrupted oxygen supply during the second Covid wave.

He informed that initially, Haryana got a quota of 150 MT of oxygen from the Centre, which was later was increased to 285 MT, although the state had demanded 350 MT of oxygen.

To ensure uninterrupted oxygen supply to tackle the COVID-19 crisis, adequate arrangements were made through all transport modes including road, air and rail, he said.

Stressing that the pandemic is not in anyone's control, Khattar said: “We have done our duty in times of crisis.”

He said the opposition has an old habit of criticising everything.

Meanwhile, on the first day of the brief monsoon session of Haryana Vidhan Sabha, six bills were tabled in the House. Detailed discussion on them would be held later.

During the proceedings, Khattar, who is Leader of the House, moved a resolution to appreciate the performance of all sportspersons who represented the country in Tokyo Olympics and said they have brought laurels with their performance.

The chief minister said the House is proud that this time 30 players in the Indian contingent who participated in the Olympics were from Haryana.

The House takes special pride in sharing that out of the seven Olympic medals, three were bagged by athletes from Haryana, he said.

This House congratulates Neeraj Chopra, gold medallist in javelin throw, silver medallist wrestler Ravi Dahiya and bronze winning wrestler Bajrang Punia, all of whom hail from the state.

The chief minister said in the men's hockey team that won a bronze medal after 41 years, two players -- Surender Kumar and Sumit Kumar -- are from Haryana, while in the women's Hockey team, nine players are from Haryana.