No deaths due to lack of oxygen were specifically reported by states and UTs during the second Covid-19 wave, the Narendra Modi-led government claimed in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, the second day of the Monsoon session in Parliament. The statement sparked censure from opposition leaders including Aam Aadmi Patry’s Satyendar Jain and Congress’s MK Venugopal, who said the ministry was tabling wrong figures and misleading the house.

Responding to a question on whether a large number of Covid-19 patients had died on roads and hospitals due to an acute shortage of oxygen in the second wave, Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar noted that health is a state subject and that states and UTs regularly report the number of cases and deaths to the Centre.