Pune Mayor Murlidhar Mohol in a meeting with Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday alleged that nearly 400-500 deaths of COVID-19 patients have been unaccounted for every month.
Speaking to Pune Mirror, Mohol said, "At the meeting, I brought to the notice of the CM that every month, there are nearly 400-500 virus deaths taking place in the city that are not being shown under the COVID-19 toll. These deceased were brought to hospitals either dead or in a serious condition and died before testing.”
He added that hospitals cannot undertake COVID-19 tests in such cases but X-rays of the deceased can surely indicate that they were infected by the coronavirus. "So, I demanded that an inquiry be undertaken and the administration take the necessary steps to prevent such deaths,” he said.
Now, Pune District Collector Naval Kishore Ram has issued an inquiry into the Mohol's allegations and asked the government-run Sassoon General Hospital (SGH) to submit a report in the next few days. However, Ram said that he has visited SGH many times and checked its records. "It would be unlikely that there are such a high number of unaccounted COVID-19 deaths," he added.
Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 cases in Pune city reached 54,255 after 818 people were detected with coronavirus infection in the last 24 hours, an official said on Friday.
The death toll increased by 28 to touch 1,312, he added.
During the day, 1,185 people were discharged after recovery, the official informed.
Maharashtra COVID-19 figures are as follows: Positive cases, 4,22,118, new cases 10,320, deaths 14,994, discharged 2,56,158, active 1,50,966, people tested so far 21,30,098.
