The Centre on April 5 informed Parliament that confirmed deaths due to oxygen shortage has not been reported by any State or Union Territory although over 5.21 lakh fatalities due to COVID-19 have been recorded in India. It told the Rajya Sabha that it had asked States to provide details of people who have died because of shortage of oxygen.
"As on April 4, 2022, States/UTs have reported a total of 5,21,358 deaths due to COVID-19 in the country," Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Bharati Pravin Pawar told the Upper House. Replying to supplementaries during the Question Hour, she said, "Twenty States/UTs have responded and none of these have reported confirmed death due to oxygen shortage." She said that some States are even now updating and reporting deaths due to COVID-19 on the Ministry's web portal.
To a query by Congress MP Shaktisinh Gohil that the government had promised ₹4 lakh as compensation for COVID-19 deaths and why this money was not being given, Bharati said the government has issued guidelines transparently. She said arrangements had been made to protect and take care of patients through insurance schemes for poor patients.
