Telangana Health Minister E. Rajender said on Thursday that deaths of Covid-affected people due to oxygen shortage is a great insult to the nation.

It is a shame that people are dying due to lack of oxygen through the Centre has the military, railways and all the required machinery at its disposal, he said.

Addressing a news conference, Rajender said deaths due to lack of oxygen may make people lose faith in the government. He demanded the Centre supply oxygen to states and ensure production of Covid vaccines on war footing.

He said the officials told him that shortage of oxygen may lead to chaos. He said that if the Centre had no money, it can ask states to bear the cost but it must fulfill oxygen requirements of all states.

Slamming the Centre for keeping everything including vaccine, oxygen, Remdisivir under its control and blaming the states for Covid-19 surge, he criticised the manner in which it is allotting Covid medical resources. He termed as irresponsible the statements by the leaders of Central government that states are not using allotted resources or that states are not bothered.

The Health Minister though Telangana demanded 600 tonnes of oxygen as the second wave is expected to peak in mid-May, the Centre has allotted only 360 tonnes. He demand that the allocation of the source of oxygen should be nearer to the state.

Rajender said while the Centre had warned about second wave, it had not mentioned that it would be so severe. “If you had expected the severity of it, you wouldn’t have held elections in several states. How would you give permission to the Kumbh Mela,” he asked.

Stating that Telangana has around 1.75 crore people in 18-44 years age group, he said the state need 3.5 crore Covid vaccine doses for them.

He reiterated that the Centre should completely provide the vaccines to all states. The Centre should rework its strategy on vaccines and take states into confidence, he said.

Rajender said people in home isolation or institution isolation were suggested to undergo blood tests every 3-4 days to know if the patients are slipping into critical stage.

The blood tests would be conducted at 19 Telangana Diagnostic Centres across the state, and start in 2-3 days.