Lucknow, Apr 23 (PTI) The Congress on Friday demanded that a health emergency be declared in Uttar Pradesh, claiming that medicines are being sold on black market with coronavirus patients dying for want of treatment.

"Patients are dying for want of beds and oxygen. Black marketing of Remdesivir is on and families of patients are crying. The number of deaths is rising and the government is still not serious," said UP Congress president Ajay Kumar Lallu in a statement.

The Yogi Adityanath-led government has failed to provide treatment to COVID patients, he said.

"The health services have collapsed. The condition is so bad that there is a need to announce state health emergency," Lallu said, alleging that black-marketing of medicines and oxygen is not possible without the "patronage" of the government.

"The CM had ordered to convert 96 private hospitals into COVID centres but these could not work due to a lack of oxygen," he said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)