In battered Agra, Covid victims’ kin spar with doctors over Oxygen crunch

Agra, April 27 (SocialNews.XYZ) With Agra reeling under an alarming pandemic situation, several families of Covid victims were seen at loggerheads with the healthcare workers over shortage of beds, medicines and oxygen supply.

On Tuesday, one such family members of a Covid victim, attacked the security personnel of a private facility here at the Civil Lines area, while the city's other parts have also witnessed a series of tussles between doctors and victims' kin for Oxygen.

Agra CMO R.C. Pandey, however, said that the district health officials and doctors are doing their best in these trying times.

District Magistrate P.N. Singh sought help from the Indian Air Force (IAF) to transport a compressor here from Ahmedabad for starting an Oxygen plant.

Officials rebuked the families for such commotion and said that they are scrambling for the Oxygen cylinders and there will be an improvement in the supply of Oxygen in the coming days.

However, families of Covid victims continued to flag shortage of beds, medicines and Oxygen.

"The system has collapsed and there is no accountability. The phone numbers circulated by the government do not respond," said Ram Ratan of Bodla, after his father was allegedly refused a bed in a nursing home.

Agra has recorded 487 fresh Covid cases in the last 24 hours, even as the number of recoveries rose to 460, health officials said on Tuesday.

However, the government has been accused of fudging the data.

Meanwhile, many voluntary groups have been providing medicare facilities as well as distributing food packets to the Covid victims.

The state health department is gearing up for the mass vaccination of all persons above the age of 18 from May 1.

Source: IANS