The supply of oxygen has become a bone of contention between Delhi and Uttar Pradesh as the deadly coronavirus sweeps through the country. Oxygen scarcity continues to haunt Covid-19 patients' kin in Lucknow. 

According to sources, most of the oxygen cylinders have been sent to the government hospitals in Lucknow, affecting those patients who are in home isolation.

On 15 April, Yogi govt’s health bulletin said Uttar Pradesh recorded 104 Covid-19 deaths in 24 hours. But Lucknow alone saw 108 funerals that day, and this is just at crematoriums and not cemeteries, reports Jyoti Yadav.

Horrific visuals from the Lucknow crematorium with pyres piling up resulting in endless funeral fires and a huge number of alleged Covid deaths shocked every citizen of the country. Visuals shared by Netizens shocked everyone to their core. People took to social media and shared videos claiming that the deaths were caused because of shortage of beds in hospitals, no proper treatment, and no oxygen availability. 

A day after a shocking video surfaced online showing a large number of funeral pyres burning together at the Bhainsakund Crematorium in Lucknow, the authorities have put up tin sheets, around the area, in an apparent effort to cover up the view.

Several videos posted online on Thursday showed men erecting the tin sheet wall around the crematorium.The deadly strike rate of the second wave could be gauged from the fact that it has killed 430 people in 24 days of April so far, nearly one third of the total casualties that have taken place in 14 months of pandemic so far. Of these 430, over 250 fatalities took place in the past 10 days at the rate of a death every hour. A diabolic equaliser, the novel coronavirus spared none from politicians to doctors and commoners.

Varsha Verma, a local of Lucknow, has deployed herself outside the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital for the service of all COVID distraught families. While several people have confined themselves in the safety of their homes amid the pandemic sneers, this woman, packed in a PPE suit, is independently providing free carriage service for bodies of COVID-19 victims from hospitals to cremation grounds. A frontline hero, she is also helping the kin of the deceased at crematoriums and other burials grounds.