The head of the Afghan-Japan Hospital, Hakimullah Saleh, rejected claims of a lack of oxygen in the hospital by patients and their relatives.
He also rejected the claims of some doctors of the hospital who said nine people were killed due to a lack of medical oxygen at the hospital on Sunday.
Saleh said that no patient died in the hospital on Sunday and that they have 80 additional balloons of oxygen.
“This is true but that does not mean that the government is not paying their salaries,” said Jamaluddin Abbas, head of media office of the hospital.
TOLOnews reporter Anisa Shaheed, who visited the hospital on Sunday, said that according to officials a pregnant woman lost her life last night on the way to the Afghan-Japan Hospital after she was rejected by Istiqlal Hospital in another part of Kabul. Shaheed said she heard other similar stories of COVID-19 patients from their relatives.
According to officials from the Afghan-Japan and Ali Jinah hospitals, six oxygen-producing companies have been contracted to supply 950 balloons of oxygen to the two hospitals every day.
“Deaths will be high if the threat factors are more with patients,” said the head of the Afghan-Japan Hospital, Mohibullah Barekzai.
The Ministry of Public Health on Sunday reported 664 new positive cases of COVID-19 out of 1,211 samples tested in the last 24 hours.
Kabul was on the top of the list with 316 new cases, followed by Kandahar with 34.
“We asked iron melting factories to reduce their use of oxygen so that we can supply more oxygen to patients,” said Akmal Samsor, a spokesman for Ministry of Public Health.
Relatives of coronavirus patients said some of the patients would not have lost their lives if they had access to oxygen.
“We have bought an additional oxygen balloon as we knew that they (hospital) had a lack of oxygen. A patient died yesterday due to lack of oxygen,” said Abdullah, a relative of a COVID-19 patient.
“There is also a problem in testing. My patient is in the ICU. There is a lack of oxygen,” said Jamshid, relative of a COVID-19 patient.