Goa O2 shortage: Bombay HC warns against more deaths; BJP MLA demands Health Minister's resignation

A day after 26 patients admitted to the Covid ward of Goa's top government hospital died due to oxygen shortage, the Bombay High Court bench in Goa said that oxygen shortage scenario in the state was grim and directed the government to ensure that at least no one dies at the health facility due to lack of oxygen "at least tonight".

The HC, which is hearing several public interest litigations questioning the shoddy Covid-19 management efforts by the state government, also said that material placed before the Court establishes that patients were dying at the Goa Medical College, the apex government health facility, due to oxygen shortage.

Read | Oxygen shortage kills 26 in Goa hospital in four hours

"We post the matter tomorrow with the fond hope that at least tonight, and even hereafter, with the joint efforts of the Dean and the State Administration of which he is a part, there are no casualties at the Goa Medical College for want of oxygen," an order by the division bench of the High Court led by Justices Nitin Sambre and Mahesh Sonak said.

"According to us, the situation about the supply of oxygen at the Goa Medical College is quite grim. We have long passed the stage of determining whether patients are suffering from the lack of oxygen or not. The material placed before us establishes that patients are indeed suffering and even in some cases succumbing for want of the supply of oxygen, in the State of Goa," the order also said. The Court is expected to hear the matter again on Thursday.

Health Minister Vishwajit Rane on Tuesday had said that 26 patients had died in the Covid ward of the Goa Medical College due to oxygen shortage from 2 am to 6 am on Tuesday morning. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had however insisted that the patients had died due to mismanagement of the available oxygen resources.

The differences between the two top ruling politicians has also sparked a sideshow in the BJP, with a BJP MLA Atanasio Monserrate demanding the resignation of the Health Minister.

"CM distributes the portfolio. What stops the CM from keeping that (Health) portfolio with him until the crisis gets over. There can only be one captain of the ship, there cannot be two captains," Monserrate said.