The Centre has asked states to provide data on deaths due to lack of oxygen during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Source said that the Central government had written to the states and Union Territories, seeking statistics of such deaths, and will, after compilation of the data, present it in the Parliament.

The opposition has been continuously attacking the government after it told the Parliament on July 20 that states have not reported any death due to oxygen during the second wave. In a reply to a question of Congress' Rajya member K.C. Venugopal over deaths of people due to lack of oxygen, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Bharati Pravin Pawar said that health is a state subject and detailed guidelines for reporting of deaths had been issued by Union Health Ministry to all states and Union Territories.