Amid reports of forging deaths due to coronavirus in many states, the Central governmnet has written to many states on the same. The Centre in a letter to West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Kerala, Bihar and Karnataka has asked to provide data of deaths as per date and district wise.
There have been ample reports that many states have been forging numbers about the deaths caused by coronavirus. Many anecdotal evidence and surveys of obituary notices in local newspapers had made it clear the official death toll in the ongoing second wave of the pandemic was an undercount in many states.
The Covid-19 death toll in Bihar took a drastic leap of 3,951 over the last 24 hours, after a report by the state health department showed numbers in the state had been miscalculated. The audit was important to assess the ground reality of Covid fatalities in transparent manner to pay ex gratia of Rs4 lakh to each victim’s family. So far, 3,737 families have been paid the ex gratia amount,” Pratyaya Amrit, the additional chief secretary (health) said. According to the official data provided by the state health department, the total number of COVID-19 deaths in the state was 5,458 till Tuesday, However, the revised data on Wednesday showed the death toll has mounted to 9,429.
The move came after the Patna high court flagged irregularities in death figures in Buxar district following which the state government did an audit of COVID-19 deaths at private hospitals and homes not recorded earlier.
