Due to a lag in oxygen supply, 11 COVID-19 patients died in a hospital in Andhra Pradesh’s Tirupati on late Monday night, reports PTI. The incident happened at Ruia Hospital as Chittoor District Collector M Hari Narayanan said the COVID-19 patients died after there was a five-minute lag in reloading the oxygen cylinder, which resulted in the pressure dropping, which led to death.

Narayanan told PTI, “The oxygen supply was restored within five minutes and everything is now normal. Because of this we could prevent more casualties.” He said that amid the supply gap, around 30 doctors were immediately rushed into the ICU to attend to the patients.

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He said the hospital had no shortage of oxygen and it had adequate supply. Around 700 COVID-19 patients were in the ICU and oxygen beds in Ruia in the hospital, while it had another 300 in normal wards. 

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy expressed grief over the incident and directed the officials to ensure that such incidents did not recur.

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He spoke to the District Collector and directed that a detailed investigation be conducted into the incident, reports PTI.

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As of May 11, over 8,700 people have died in Andhra Pradesh due to COVID-19 disease. The state has logged nearly 1,287,603 cases of coronavirus till now.