Covid-19: UP hospital that conducted 'mock oxygen drill' gets clean chit

Although the probe revealed that 16 Covid patients had died at the hospital, the owner was not responsible for them, district officials in Agra said

The private hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Agra town, which had allegedly conducted a "oxygen mock drill" at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in April, resulting in the 'death' of 22 Covid patients, was given a clean chit by the district administration on Saturday.

Barely a few days ago, several shocking videos, which had later gone viral on social media, claimed that 22 Covid patients, who were on oxygen support at the hospital, might have died after the hospital snapped oxygen supply as part of a 'mock drill'.

Though the probe revealed that 16 Covid patients had died at the hospital, its owner was not found to be responsible for them, district officials said in Agra.

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The videos showed the owner of the hospital purportedly saying that the 'mock oxygen drill' had been undertaken after attendants refused to agree to the forced discharge of patients owing to shortage of oxygen.

''Start discharging the patients... there is no oxygen... even the chief minister cannot make it available... I asked the attendants to take their patients elsewhere... they kept saying they would not go elsewhere,'' a person, who was sitting next to the owner, was heard saying in one of the videos.

The man was further heard saying they snapped the oxygen supply of 96 patients, who were admitted there, at 7 am on April 26 to see who would survive. "Within five minutes, 22 patients turned blue... they were segregated,'' the man can be heard heard saying.

Official records showed that the hospital had reported only four deaths on April 26. The district officials had also not reported the deaths.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra slammed the administration for giving a clean chit to the hospital. ''The probe too was a mock drill,'' she said in a post on Twitter.