Panaji, May 14

Thirteen more Covid-19 patients died at the Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) in the early hours of Friday, a senior health department official said, taking to 75 the number of people who have succumbed at the government-run facility over the last four days.

The horror at the GMCH is continuing even as the Goa bench of the Bombay High Court is hearing petitions related to deaths during the “dark hours” at the premier hospital. While the state government has not revealed the exact cause of recent deaths at the GMCH, it has told the HC that there were “logistic issues” related to supply of medical oxygen to patients.

On Thursday, Advocate General Devidas Pangam had told a Bench of Justices Nitin Sambre and Mahesh Sonak that there were logistical issues involved in maneuvering the tractor, which carries the trolleys of oxygen and in connecting the cylinders to the manifold (group of large gas cylinders).” The number of patients who died during the dark hours (between 2 am and 6 am) has touched 75 over the last four days. The HC is hearing a bunch of petitions on recent deaths allegedly due to lack of medical oxygen. — PTI