At least nine COVID-19 patients died at two different hospitals at Nallasopara in Palghar district of Maharashtra on Monday, said a police official.
He informed that a large number of people gathered at the hospitals due rumor spread which said that the deaths were caused due to the shortage of medical oxygen.
He added, while seven patients, including two women, died at a hospital, two patients died at another hospital.
According to officials, police personnel were deployed in large numbers to prevent any untoward incident.
The situation was closely monitored by senior police inspectors of Tulinj and Nallasopara police stations and senior officers, he added.
Former BJP MP Kirit Somaiya tweeted that seven COVID-19 Patients died at a hospital in Nallasopara due to “defect in oxygen supply”.
No medical officer from the Vasai Virar Municipal Corporation (VVMC) or any other senior official was available for comments.
Along with the spike in Covid-19 cases, the state has also witnessed a slight jump in fatalities with 5,522 deaths reported in a month.
On February 12, the state had 51,451 fatalities which rose to 52,723 on March 12. In the past seven days alone, the state has added 2,212 fatalities.
Meanwhile, the senior officials said after a slight slowdown in vaccination drive, Maharashtra was expected to cross 350,000-mark in beneficiaries on Monday. Owing to a shortage of vaccine, the state administration had to temporarily shut some vaccination centers, but the stocks have been replenished and distributed, said N Ramaswami, health services commissioner.
According to the Union health ministry’s data on Tuesday morning, India Tuesday recorded 161,736 new cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours. With this, the total number of cases reached 13,689,453.
The ministry’s data showed that the number of fatalities due to Covid-19 also increased, as 879 deaths were registered in the last 24 hours.
