MORADABAD, India: People in India's most populous state Uttar Pradesh are fighting not just a raging pandemic but also a prickly Hindu nationalist ...
MORADABAD, India: People in India's most populous state Uttar Pradesh are fighting not just a raging pandemic but also a prickly Hindu nationalist local government that many say is in denial.
Even though his relative clearly needs hospital treatment, he was unable to get a bed because of government red tape."We could only get a rapid antigen test done which is not accepted by hospitals for admission," Panday told AFP as he waited outside an oxygen cylinder filling station in Moradabad district."They are demanding an RT-PCR , and that is not available," he said, referring to a reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction test.
"But we know many people are unable to get tested and are sick. But they can't get oxygen," said manager R K Yadav.A regional court on Wednesday said that deaths in Uttar Pradesh due to oxygen shortages were"criminal acts and not less than a genocide".Last week the firebrand monk declared that those making"false" claims about shortages would be prosecuted and their properties seized.
In the state capital Lucknow, the official death toll for April is 830. But two crematoriums say they handled more than 1,900 bodies while 500 others were buried in the Muslim graveyard.