Last week was a particularly grim week for Maharashtra, with 774 COVID-19 deaths being reported and the toll crossing 100 every single day, but the authorities are now holding out cold comfort by attributing it to an information backlog. In actuality, last week, the state recorded 40 to 50 deaths daily, on average, according to official sources.
Notably, the official data issued by the state health department listed 774 Covid-19 deaths from June 1 to June 7, putting the state on top of the national list for daily Covid fatalities. Now health officials are saying there were actually 257 deaths in Maharashtra last week, with the remaining 517 or 66 per cent of deaths having occurred between April 13 and June 5.
The delay in reviewing the bookkeeping and checking backlogs was the reason for the reporting of the highest number of single-day deaths on five such occasions, officials explained.
Senior officials from the state public health department said they collect data on Covid deaths from the various laboratories across the state, which is updated live on the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) portal. “There are hundreds of previously unreported deaths from the districts in the last several days, and it is being reported daily, which makes it seem like a huge number every day. So it cannot be the highest number of single-day deaths reported,” according to an official.
On June 5, 139 corona deaths were reported across the state, of which 27 had been reported in the last 48 hours, while the remaining 122 had occurred between April 21 and June 2. Similarly, on June 6 and June 4, 120 and 123 deaths were reported respectively, of which 30 each had been reported in the preceding two days, while the remaining 90 and 93 corona deaths had occurred between April 30 and June 3. “All these deaths had occurred between April to June 5, as most patients who died had comorbidities such as diabetes, hypertension, heart ailments and other illnesses. It takes time to review the exact cause of deaths and once this is done, it is updated on the ICMR portal accordingly,” said a health official.
However, health experts say daily fatalities have gone beyond 100, which cannot be attributed to bookkeeping or backlog and suggested there is a loophole due to which fatalities are not being updated.
