It was a tense atmosphere outside the government hospital in Nizamabad, Telangana, after family members and relatives of two coronavirus patients staged protests alleging medical negligence that led to the deaths of the patients. The charges levelled by the family members of the deceased persons, however, have since been denied by the hospital authorities. Nizamabad Government Hospital had witnessed three COVID-19 patients breathing their last on Thursday night with relatives of the two holding protests outside the medical facility's premises. 

During the demonstrations, the relatives alleged that oxygen was not provided to the patients at the hospital while they were undergoing treatment for COVID-19, which in turn they state had led to their deaths. Dismissing the allegations, Nizamabad Government General Hospital Superintendent Nageswara Rao said there was no negligence by any doctors, para-medical staff in attending to the patients or a shortage in the oxygen supply. 

He stated that one among the patients was a severely-ill 75-year-old woman, whose oxygen levels dropped to 67 percent. Speaking about the second patient, a 50-year-old man, he added that the victim's oxygen saturation level had dropped to 83 percent. And, the third patient, a 50-year-old woman with hypertension, had less levels of oxygen saturation. 

The Superintendent said, "All the three COVID-19 patients were admitted to the hospital in poor health condition last month. There was neither medical negligence nor shortage of oxygen at the hospital,". He explained saying oxygen cylinders have been supplied to the hospital in bulk by the government in advance in case the centralised system's oxygen supply goes down. The bodies of the deceased were sent for funeral and laid to rest as per the COVID-19 guidelines.

In the meantime, the Telangana government formed joint teams of officials to carry out inspections to check black marketing of oxygen cylinders. A meeting presided by Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar and officials, including the police, was held on Friday to discuss the supply of oxygen to hospitals. Officials from the Drug Control Administration, Task Force of Hyderabad city police, Director of Public Health and Deputy Chief Controller of Explosives will be jointly working together as a team.