“Ram Rajya laane wali sarkar khud Ram bharose hai”, shouted Anurag Sharma, a lower level BJP worker whose father is tested covid positive on Tuesday and has pulled all strings to get his father admitted in hospital but of no avail.
“The oxygen level has gone down. Please admit my father even in private hospital. I will pay the fees,” he told the CMO Sanjay Bhatnagar on telephone. “I do not have money but will arrange. I will sell my land in village and get money. I need to save my father’s life,” he told the CMO.
Being in BJP and working on ad hoc in the party office, he is in touch with some senior leaders. “Few leaders assured me that they will help and I believe they might have called the higher officials too, but till now, I am yet to get bed for my father,” he said.
Sharma’s case is not an isolated case. There are thousands of people across Uttar Pradesh who are struggling to get hospital bed, medicines and when some of them die, their relatives line up in crematorium for hours to cremate the bodies.
Sample this:
· Rajiv Tiwari, a resident of Indira Nagar was tested corona positive on April 11. He is in home isolation. His Oxygen level has dropped to below 90. He is waiting for ambulance to take him to hospital for last three days. “I am told hospital has been allotted to me but there is no ambulance to take me to hospital,” he said.
· Oxygen level of Kishan Gupta, 24, has dropped to 51. He is in Balrampur hospital and family wants him to be shifted to L3 hospital so that he can get ventilators but are still struggling to get bed. Kishan’s father had died of corona on April 9.
· Girija Shankar, a resident of Ashiana, died in Ram Manohar Lohia hospital on Tuesday. He had breathing problem and was suspected to be covid positive. Family waited for ambulance for over 24 hours so that body could be taken to cremation ground. Failing to get ambulance, the family hired a private vehicle and took the body to cremation ground.
What Government says:
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that there is no shortage of beds and oxygen for Covid patients in all 75 districts. “We have sufficient bed and more non-covid hospitals are turning into covid hospitals. Even the private hospitals, dedicated for Covid treatment, cannot refuse admission of patients,” he said in a meeting.
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In this dire situation, even getting medicines for the patients who are in home isolation, is proving to be a tough task. Either the medicine is not available in the open market, if it is there, it is available at a premium.
· A woman ( who does not want to give her name) purchased Remdesivir, a crucial drug for treatment of Covid-19, at Rs 12,000 per vial against the printed price of Rs 4500. “I was told that the drug is out of stock. With no option left I was forced to extra,” she said. She needs 12 vials of the injection.
· A journalist’s wife tested positive and is in home isolation. She is advised Covifor. “This medicine is out of stock and one chemist said he can get it arranged at Rs 4000 while its cost of less than RS 1500,” he said.
· Chandra Bhan, a chemist in Lucknow, said that basic medicine like Zinc tablets, Vit D and Vit C are in short supply. The demand of these medicines is high because government has advised people to take it.
What Government says:
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Chief Secretary R K Tiwari claims that there is sufficient supply of Remdisivir. After CM’s initiative 25,000 vials were flown down to Lucknow from Ahmedabad on Wednesday. There is no hording of medicines and all life saving drugs are easily available in the market.
As people are neither getting medical care nor medicines there is a spike in number of fatalities because of covid. On Wednesday UP recorded 61 deaths while it shot up to 108 on Thursday. This has led to rush in cremation grounds and graveyards.
· In Kanpur 35 new temporary platforms have been set up on Bithoor-Sidhnath Ghat stretch along river Ganga to cremate bodies that are piling up at Bhagwatdas, Bhaironghat and Sidhnath ghats (cremation sites). Three electric crematoriums at these sites are also working overtime.
· In the past two weeks, these crematoriums received 125 bodies. On Wednesday 20 bodies were cremated in electric crematorium.
· In Lucknow, on Wednesday people were asked to arrange for woods for themselves. There is scarcity of woods, the in-charge of the Bhainsakund crematorium said.
· A report from Allahabad says that in last one week almost 850 cremations and 135 burials have taken place.
· Cremation ground in Lucknow is covered with corrugated tin sheets to obstruct the view.
What the Government says:
Nagar Nigam officials say in Lucknow that earlier there was shortage of wood in cremation grounds but that problem has been solved. “A portion of the cremation ground has been covered to separate it from non-covid cremation,” Municipal Commissioner Ajay Dwivedi said.