Expressing shock over the death of 11 patients at RUIA Hospital, Tirupati, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has ordered that an ex gratia of ₹10 lakh be paid to the kin of the patients who died reportedly owing to inadequate supply of oxygen.
During the weekly Spandana review with Collectors, Mr. Jagan said in an emotional tone, “These are difficult times and even on Monday, we had to air lift six empty oxygen tankers to Odisha and get them filled and get them back to Gannavaram. These are the times we are living in and even while we are putting consolidated efforts, some things are not in our hands. These are testing times and I request the Collectors not to get disheartened and be more vigilant and be humane. We should address these issues in much more sympathetic manner.”
The Chief Minister revealed that only about 10% of people in the county were vaccinated. “The production capacity of Serum Institute of India is about 6 crore doses for a month and Bharat Biotech capacity is about one crore doses per month. Of the targeted 172 crore doses across the country, we have barely managed to vaccinate 17 crore. This is the scenario we are facing and it is unfortunate that the Opposition had chosen to criticise our government over vaccination when they knew that the whole vaccination is controlled by the Central government,” Mr. Jagan said.
Hitting out strongly against the Opposition and a section of the media, the Chief Minister said that it was unfortunate that opposition had chosen to criticise the government. “Everyone knew we have spent over ₹85,000 crore on welfare alone . Can’t we spend just ₹1,600 crore to buy vaccine? Is not unfair on the Opposition parties to target us? I can proudly say that we are best among States providing quality medical treatment to COVID patients,” Mr. Jagan said asking the Collectors to focus on improving the quality of 104 services.
Published - May 11, 2021 11:40 pm IST
