BJP leaders attack Yogi after MLAs die from Covid-19; 7 die in UP hospital due to oxygen shortage

As disturbing videos of people, desperate for oxygen cylinders and Remdesivir, a key drug in fighting Covid, continued to flood social media, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath came under attack from his own party leaders after three BJP legislators died from Covid 19 in the past few days, even as the number of fresh cases of infection crossed 35,000-mark in the past 24-hours in the state.

The state government has been claiming that there is no shortage of oxygen or Remdesivir but the situation on the ground tells a different story altogether. In chief minister Yogi Adityanath's hometown of Gorakhpur, about 300 kilometres from Lucknow, Remdesivir was being distributed from the office of the district magistrate. A long queue of people was seen outside the DM office in Gorakhpur for the medicine. The people said that they had to wait for almost 24 hours to get two vials of the injection.

A video which went viral on social media, showed a man falling at the feet of a policeman to seek his help in getting an oxygen cylinder for his mother, who was admitted to the hospital in Agra. Similarly, another video showed a woman touching the feet of a health official in Noida to get a vial of Remdesivir. The official allegedly threatened to send her to jail if she insisted.

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A video from UP's Baghpat district, about 450 kilometres from here, showed two patients, who were admitted to a government Covid hospital, lying on the ground after falling from their beds. There was no one in the ward to put them back on the bed and put the oxygen mask on their mouths.

Seven patients, who were on Oxygen support at a private hospital in UP's Moradabad town, about 350 kilometres from here, The attendants of the patients alleged that they died after Oxygen supply to the hospital was disrupted.

Meanwhile, Adityanath has come under attack from his own party leaders after three BJP legislators-Suresh Srivastava, Ramesh Diwakar and Kesar Singh Gagnwar-died from Covid in the past few days. According to the family members of Gangwar, the MLA had written to the union health minister Harsh Vardhan requesting him to help him get admitted to a Delhi hospital but got no help.

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Gangwar's son Vishal slammed Adityanath for failing to ensure treatment of his party MLAs. "UP government has not been able to provide medical care to the MLAs.....I tried calling the chief minister's office several times but no one picked the calls," Vishal said in a post on his Facebook wall. "Dhanya hai UP sarkar...dhanya hain Modiji" (both UP government and prime minister Narendra Modi must be praised), Vishal said in a sarcastic tone.

BJP MPs Kaushal Kishore and Rajendra Agarwal also criticised the state government for failing to ensure uninterrupted supply of Oxygen and Remdesivir to the Covid patients. UP minister Brijesh Pathak had also earlier said that the health officials never picked up phones and that there were neither beds at the hospitals nor ambulances to carry the patients.

UP reported 35,156 cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours. As many as 258 people died from the disease in the same period.