NEW DELHI: As coronavirus cases rise exponentially, the fatality count is also inching towards the 1,000 mark in the national capital. According to the Delhi government’s daily health bulletin, there have been 48 fatalities in past 24 hours, taking the toll to 984, of which an overwhelming majority (more than 900) has been reported in past one month.
On May 10, the health bulletin showed the number of deaths at 73. The count started rising a few days later after media reports highlighted a mismatch in the fatality tally. The administration of hospitals such as RML, Lady Hardinge Medical College, Safdarjung and LNJP claimed higher death figures than what was shown by the AAP government on record.
Under fire, the government blamed hospitals for reporting the deaths late. The casualty count started increasing a few days later and the government attributed the rise to addition of backlog data. Even on Wednesday, the health bulletin break-up revealed that the casualty figure of 48 was not a single-day toll but addition of numbers on June 7 and 8 (39 and 9, respectively).
Over the past one month, the number of backlog fatalities has significantly increased with addition of more than 50 deaths many times. Sources had claimed that many of the deaths which occurred at the non-designated Covid-19 hospitals were not recorded as the authorities didn’t inform the state government and also because many of these who succumbed were from NCR region.
“Many patients were brought to hospitals in critical condition. Those were difficult to revive. Also most of those who succumbed were aged and with comorbidity,” said an official.
Meanwhile, the BJP-run MCDs, under which the crematoriums come, claimed that the number of bodies cremated or buried were even higher than the figures reported by the hospitals. The state government then formed an audit committee to collect data from the hospitals.
The rising cases as well as deaths seem to have made the Delhi government nervous even as it tries to step up efforts to death with the crisis.
10 thousand cases in span of 8 days
With an average of 1,250 COVID-19 cases daily, Delhi added 10,000 cases in just eight days from
June 1, a sharp spike from the 79 days it took to reach the 10,000 mark. Thenational capital took 13 days for the tally to progress from 10,000 to the 20,000 mark.