BHUBANESWAR: While confirming only six Covid fatalities in the last 24 hours, the State government on Thursday, September 2, 2021, announced the end of the backlog death data audit. The State added around 6,000 deaths in the last four months.
As the government drew flak from various quarters over under-reporting of Covid deaths between March and May, it claimed that the death data was under audit. The fatalities were announced even when the cases were declining steadily.
Health and Family Welfare department sources said that an average of 66 deaths per day were reported during August, 61 in July and 42 in June. As many as 2,056 deaths were registered in August, 1,903 in July, 1,272 in June and 737 in May. The highest 1,463 deaths were reported from Khurda, the worst-hit district, followed by 808 in Cuttack, 572 in Sundargarh, 469 in Ganjam, 440 in Puri, 375 in Angul and 334 in Bargarh.
Districts recording less number of deaths include Malkangiri (45), Deogarh (50), Sonepur (59), Nabarangpur (73), Koraput (75), Kandhamal (82), Gajapati (83) and Nuapada (84). With this, the overall case fatality ratio rose to 0.8 per cent from 0.4 per cent during the first wave. Of the 754 fresh cases, 108 were children and adolescents. Khurda district recorded the highest 261 cases, including 234 from Bhubaneswar followed by Cuttack (110) and Balasore (43). Gajapati and Subarnapur did not report any new cases.
A 104-year-old man from Cuttack was among the six persons who succumbed to the disease taking the State’s coronavirus toll to 8,028. This was the lowest death count in a single-day since June. The State now has 6,503 active cases after recovery of 738 patients. Additional Chief Secretary of Health PK Mohapatra said the death audit was completed on August 31. The fresh death figures will be announced from now onwards, he added.
