Congress' Surjewala hits out at Karnataka govt, alleges 'COVID-19 patients deceived’

Amid a major medical oxygen crisis and surge in COVID-19 cases, Congress General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala on Tuesday took to Twitter and slammed the Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa and the state BJP government over the COVID situation in the state and accused them of 'deceiving' patients. He also demanded the sacking of the state Health Minister. 

Meanwhile, Karnataka Congress President DK Shivakumar has also slammed the state government and accused them of corruption in the allocation of hospital beds. 

The oxygen crisis has increased in certain parts of Karnataka on Tuesday, with the deaths of seven COVID patients in Kalaburagi and Belagavi allegedly due to oxygen shortage. As per sources, four people died in the morning in Kalaburagi government hospital and three in Belagavi government hospital allegedly due to shortage of life-saving gas. However, Mining and Geology Minister Murugesh Nirani, who is in charge of the Kalaburagi district, dismissed the allegation saying that those who died had COVID infection at an advanced stage.

This comes a few days after 24 critical patients lost their lives in a span of two hours due to a lack of oxygen supply in Chamrajnagar hospital. The incident took place in the wee hours on Monday. A total of 144 patients were admitted to the hospital. Chamrajnagar District Incharge Minister S Suresh Kumar has ordered an inquiry into the death of all the 24 patients at the district hospital. 

COVID Cases In Karnataka 

Karnataka on Tuesday reported 44,631 new COVID-19 cases and 292 deaths, taking the caseload and fatalities to 16,90,934 and 16,538 respectively, the health department said. According to the health bulletin, the state has 4,64,363 active cases whereas 12,10,013 people have been discharged so far including 24,714 people on Tuesday.

Bengaluru urban district, which is the main contributor of a daily spike in cases, now has 3,01,712 active cases. The city reported 20,870 infections and 132 deaths on Tuesday. Cumulatively, Bengaluru has 8,40,274 cases and 6,845 deaths. According to the health bulletin, 2,293 infections were reported in Mysuru, 2,278 in Hassan, 1636 in Tumakuru, 1,506 in Mandya, 1,280 in Kalaburagi, and 1,162 in Kalaburagi,