Tag: covid deaths

  • COVID-19: India logs lowest deaths in 61 days; 62,480 new cases take tally to 2,97,62,793

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: With 62,480 new coronavirus infections being reported in a day, India’s total tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 2,97,62,793, while the death toll climbed to 3,83,490 with 1,587 fresh fatalities, the lowest in 61 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday.

    The active cases have fallen below 8 lakh after 73 days and the national COVID-19 recovery rate has crossed 96 per cent.

    The active cases have declined to 7,98,656 comprising 2.68 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 96.03 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed.

    62,480 people tested positive for #COVID19 while 1,587 succumbed to the infection in the last 24 hours. pic.twitter.com/vGl8U1bpPe
    — The New Indian Express (@NewIndianXpress) June 18, 2021

    A net decline of 28,084 cases has been recorded in the COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

    A total of 19,29,476 tests were conducted on Thursday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 38,71,67,696.

    The daily positivity rate was recorded 3.24 per cent. It has been less than 5 per cent for 11 consecutive days, the ministry said, adding the weekly positivity rate has declined to 3.80 per cent.

    Recoveries continue to outnumber daily new cases for the 36th consecutive day.

    The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 2,85,80,647, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.29 per cent, the data stated.

    Cumulatively, 26,89,60,399 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered so far under Nationwide Vaccination Drive.

    India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16.

    It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

    India crossed the grim milestone of 2 crore on May 4.

    The 1,587 new fatalities include 636 from Maharashtra, 210 from Tamil Nadu and 138 from Karnataka.

    A total of 3, 83,490 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,16,026 from Maharashtra, 33,434 from Karnataka, 30,548 from Tamil Nadu, 24,886 from Delhi, 22,030 from Uttar Pradesh, 17,182 from West Bengal, 15,738 from Punjab and 13,361 from Chhattisgarh.

    The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

    “Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research,” the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.

  • 730 doctors died of COVID-19 in second wave in India: IMA data

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: As many as 730 doctors have succumbed to coronavirus infection during the second wave, according to data available by the Indian Medical Association (IMA).

    Bihar saw the maximum number of 115 deaths, followed by Delhi at 109, Uttar Pradesh 79, West Bengal 62, Rajasthan 43, Jharkhand 39, and Andhra Pradesh 38, the data showed.

    According to the IMA, 748 doctors died in the first wave of the pandemic.

    “Last year 748 doctors across India succumbed to COVID-19, while in the current second wave, in a short period we have lost 730 doctors,” a doctor associated with the IMA said.

  • COVID-19 and under-reporting of deaths: India’s epic fatality math mess 

    By Express News Service
    While the Centre recently bristled at an international news magazine pegging India’s excess deaths due to the pandemic at 5-7 times the official count, the fact that there is under-reporting cannot be brushed away.

    Under mounting pressure for an honest admission on the scale of the pandemic, Maharashtra and Bihar raised their fatality figures last week through data reconciliation after audit/validation by around 14,000 and 4,000, respectively.

    But allegations that not all deaths in private hospitals or of patients on their way to hospitals in rural areas were recorded under the Covid category refuse to go away, prompting the Patna High Court to direct the Bihar government to confirm whether its data revision was full and final.  HYDERABAD: Data discrepancy, to put it mildly, is visible across the country and under all political dispensations.

    Take Hyderabad. There was a 14.2% jump in deaths within the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits in 2020-21, as compared to the same period in the previous year. 

    A Right to Information query by this newspaper on the death certificates it issued revealed that the corporation handed out 9,235 more certificates between 2020 March and 2021 April (see box). 

    Besides, 998 other death certificates are under process. Also, data was available only for 18 erstwhile circles of GHMC, which have now been reorganised into 30 circles within the same area.

    Yet, the cumulative count of Covid deaths recorded in the entire Telangana as on June 14 is just 3,496, though there were humungous crowds at the state’s burial and cremation grounds when the second wave was at its peak.

    A municipal officer in Hyderabad said an year-on-year increase of 3-4% in death certificates is normal because of continued migration and rising awareness of the need for death certificates. 

    However, a 14.2% increase in a year when for three months the city was under lockdown was concerning, he said. “During lockdown there were hardly any road traffic deaths, which is one of the major contributors to daily toll,” he added.

    MYSURU: Sa Ra Mahesh, a legislator from Mysuru, disputes the district administration’s Covid-19 death figures. 

    While the district administration claims 238 people succumbed to the virus between May 1 and May 29, 2021, he claims he has documents to show that 974 people died during the same period.

    A former minister, Mahesh substantiated his argument by producing death reports along with Covid-19 test results, mentioning the cause of death as Covid-19.This paper did a reality check at Tagaduru, a village in Nanjangud taluk of the district.

    While the government data available at the community health centre stated that eight persons died of Covid-19 in May, villagers disputed the number before the minister and deputy commissioner, saying that they buried 18 who had died of Covid.

    On their part, the doctors at the hospital said they have records of only those who tested positive and died at their health centre, and not that of those who availed of treatment and died elsewhere.

    Mysuru had reported 893 deaths in March 2020, which went up to 1,222 during the corresponding month in 2021. Similarly, in April 2020, the district reported a total of 699 deaths, and in April 2021, the number went up by around 61% to 1,129.

    Interestingly, Karnataka health department’s State War Room data shows that Mysuru district reported zero death in March and April 2020. The official tally of Covid-19 deaths in March and April 2021 is 24, and 157, respectively.

    DEHRADUN: In Uttarakhand, the Dehrdaun Municipal Corporation presents a peculiar picture. It recorded 26.47% increase in death certificates in 2020-21 when compared to the same period the previous year.

    In all, 1,274 death certificates were issued in April 2021 as compared to 1,035 in April 2020. In April 2020, the official count of Covid death in Uttarakhand was zero while in April 2021, as many as 907 Covid death were recorded.

    In other words, over 1,000 people died due to causes other than Covid last year, but this year the number of such deaths was just about 360.

    JAIPUR: In Rajasthan’s capital, the numbers of death certificates issued by the Jaipur Municipal Corporation in April and May 2020 were 858 and 1,650, respectively.

    The corresponding figures ballooned to 3,309 and 3,387 in April and May 2021, a jump by 2,451 and 1,697.

    However, the official count of Covid fatalities in April and May 2020 were 32 and 59, while for the same months a year later, the figures stood at 241 and 1,121. There is little by way of explanation yet for the skew.

    RAIPUR: Another inexplicable data count can be seen in Chhattisgarh’s capital Raipur. While records show that 2,194 people died April-May this year, death certificates issued by the Raipur Municipal Corporation (RMC) stood at 5,434 for the same period. RMC registrar Vijay Pandey has an strange explanation. 

    “The deaths recorded in April or May 2021 are not actually of those months. Many of them are late additions – from one to a few months old – due to delayed registration. During lockdown, government offices were not functional. It was only after some relaxation in the later part of May that the process of death registration picked up,” he said.

    (Reporting by Donita Jose @ Hyderabad; K Shiva Kumar @ Mysuru; Rajesh Kumar Thakur @ Patna; Vineet Upadhyay @ Dehradun; Rajesh Asnani @ Jaipur; Ejaz Kaiser @ Raipur)

  • Jharkhand registers zero fresh COVID fatality for first time during second wave

    By PTI
    RANCHI: Jharkhand on Sunday did not report any fresh coronavirus death for the first time during the ongoing second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, but 239 new cases pushed the state’s tally to 3,43,304, a health bulletin said.

    East Singhbhum district registered the highest number of new cases at 51, followed by 27 in Ranchi and 23 in Hazaribag, it said.

    The state now has 3,966 active cases, while the coronavirus death toll remained unchanged at 5,082.

    A total of 3,34,256 people have recovered from the disease thus far, including 493 in the last 24 hours, the bulletin said.

    The recovery rate among the coronavirus patients in the state has improved to 97.36 per cent.

    The state has tested over 90.6 lakh samples for COVID-19 to date, including 43,653 in the last 24 hours, it said.

    In a bid to combat the surge of cases, the state government has imposed lockdown-like restrictions till June 17.

  • Uttar Pradesh: Three bodies found floating in Ganga

    By PTI
    KANNAUJ: Three bodies, including that of a woman, were found floating in the Ganga on the Kannauj-Hardoi border, police said on Sunday.

    The bodies, found on Saturday, have been handed over to the Hardoi police, they said.

    Kannauj SP Prashant Verma said the bodies were found floating in the river near the Badnapur Ghat on Saturday.

    Since the bodies were spotted in the area under the Hardoi district, the Hardoi police was informed, and they were handed over to the Hardoi police, Verma said.

  • Extrapolation sans epidemiological evidence: Government trashes report on higher Covid deaths

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: India Saturday refuted a report which claimed that its Covid deaths could be “five to seven times” higher than the official number, saying the assessment is based on extrapolation of data without any epidemiological evidence.

    In a statement, the Union Health Ministry also slammed the publication, without naming it, for the article which claimed: “India has suffered perhaps five to seven times ‘excess deaths’ than the official number of Covid-19 fatalities”.

    The ministry termed the article, published by The Economist, speculative, without any basis and misinformed.

    “The unsound analysis of the said article is based on the extrapolation of data without any epidemiological evidence,” the ministry said, adding the studies used by the magazine to estimate the mortality are not validated tools for determining the death rate of any country or region. 

    The ministry then went on to list the reasons why the studies used by the publication cannot be trusted. An internet search of research studies in scientific databases such as Pubmed, Research Gate, etc., did not locate this study and its detailed methodology has not been provided by the magazine either, the ministry said.

    “Another evidence given is the study done in Telangana based on insurance claims. Again, there is no peer-reviewed scientific data available on such a study,” the statement said.

    “Two other studies relied upon are those done by Psephology groups namely ‘Prashnam’ and ‘C-Voter’ who are well versed in conducting, predicting and analyzing poll results.

    They were never ever associated with public health research. Even in their own area of work of psephology, their methodologies for predicting poll results have been wide off the mark many times,” it said.

    By their own submission, the magazine states that “such estimates have been extrapolated from patchy and often unreliable local government data, from company records and from analyses of such things as obituaries”, the statement said It said the government has been transparent in its approach to Covid data management.

    In order to avoid any inconsistency in the number of deaths being reported, the ministry said, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) issued guidelines as early as in May 2020.

    It said that for correct recording of all deaths, the ICD-10 codes recommended by World Health Organisation (WHO) was followed.

    States and Union Territories have been urged through formal communications, multiple video conferences and through the deployment of Central teams for correct recording of deaths in accordance with laid down guidelines, it said.

    The Health Ministry said that it has also regularly emphasised the need for a robust reporting mechanism for monitoring district-wise cases and deaths on a daily basis “States consistently reporting a lower number of daily deaths was told to re-check their data.

    A case in point is the Union Government writing to the State of Bihar to provide detailed date and district wise break-up of the reconciled number of deaths to Union Health Ministry,” it said.

    The statement said there shall always be the difference in mortality recorded during a profound and prolonged public health crisis such as the COVID pandemic and well-conducted research studies on excess mortalities, usually done after the event when data on mortalities are available from reliable sources.

    The methodologies for such studies are well established, the data sources are defined as also the valid assumptions for computing mortality, the statement said.

    ALSO WATCH |

  • COVID-19: Uttarkhand records 922 more backlog deaths since first wave

    Express News Service
    DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand has recorded total 922 ‘Backlog Deaths’ till June 11 raising questions on COVID mortality data. Interestingly, 89 backlog deaths were reported on October 17, 2020 followed by 29 on May 9 and 65 on May 14, 2021. Since May 17, 2021 it has been a regular feature in daily COVID-19 bulletin of the state.

    Anoop Nautiyal, from Social Development for Communities Foundation which has been collating and analysing data since March 15, 2020 when the first case of COVID19 surfaced in the state said, “The number of deaths cannot be final and foolproof numbers as, for remote and hilly aras of Uttarakhand where almost everyone was in home isolation, figures must have been missed. Releasing COVID-19 mortality figures in form of backlog deaths confirms that number can be much more in first as well as second wave.”

    As per law, hospitals need to report deaths within 24 hours but with these deaths being reported by hospitals much later on daily basis cites that they missed those somehow.

    The state health department started regularly updating daily bulletin with backlog deaths since May 17, 2021 stating, “Deaths reported from previous date are added in cumulative figure. These deaths were reflected in district reports/daily bulletin, but not submitted timely to State COVID-19 Control Room.”

    Commenting on the matter, Abhishek Tripathi, in-charge of state COVID-19 Control Room said, “The backlog deaths are still being released as an exercise of transparency. These figures were missed due to various reason including heavy load or the staff of the hospitals being affected badly by the second wave.”

    On May 17 total 87 backlog deaths were reported followed by 19 on May 18, 83 on May 19, 79 on May 20, 46 on May 21, 70 on May 22, 18 on May 23, 27 on May 24, 12 on May 25, 40 on May 26, 7 on May 27, 8 on May 28, 41 on May 29, 9 on May 30, 7 on May 31, 9 on June 1, 8 on June 2, 7 on June 3, 15 on June 4, 17 on June 5, 12 on June 6, 11 on June 7, 53 on June 8, 30 on June 9, 14 on June 10 and 10 on June 11, 2021. 

    Last month after incident of 65 deaths from April 25 to May 12 went unreported in Baba Barfani Hospital of Haridwar, the state government swung in action and issues orders that those failing to report COVID deaths will be penalized. 

    Meanwhile, the Uttarakhand High Court on June 9, 2021 directed the state health department officials “to file sufficient cogent and convincing evidence to establish that death audit is being carried out”. The bench comprising Chief Justice RS Chauhan said in the order, “The said death audit report should also be accompanied with the corresponding death certificate of the patient.”

  • Maharashtra government revises its total COVID-19 death tally, adds more than 10,000 fatalities

    Express News Service
    MUMBAI: The Maharashtra health department revised its total COVID-19 death toll by adding up more than 10,693 deaths in the total tally of COVID-19 fatalities deaths across the state. The total deaths in Maharashtra were calculated 1,06,367 since the outbreak of the pandemic.

    However, the opposition BJP alleged that the Maharashtra government concealed these deaths numbers and now in the name of technical glitches they are adding up now. Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis said that he was warning the Maharashtra government not to conceal any positive cases or the deaths as well.

    “This is not the issue of pride or insult, but the transparency is very important to fight against this deadly virus. I have also written several occasions to the government to be transparent during the pandemic,” Fadnavis said.

    ALSO READ| COVID-19 death toll crosses 10,000-mark in Maharashtra’s Thane district

    Sources in the government said that the total COVID-19 deaths tally can go further so each day and new death figures will be added in the total COVID-19 death tally of the state government.

    According to the state health department, they collect data on positive cases and death tally from various government sources at various platforms. “Sometimes, the private hospitals do not share the information about the positive cases and deaths caused by COVID-19 on time and that piled up data is later collaborated. So, it is not a deliberate attempt but it is part of the system. As and when they receive the information then it is immediately added in the total tally of the positive cases and deaths,” said a health department official.

    “In the month of May, there were large numbers of positive cases and deaths and though administration was to maintain the daily data, they were busy making beds and other services to tackle the pandemic. Therefore, most of the left of the numbers are from May,” said an official from the state health department.

    He added that the situation is normalized and therefore they have asked the local administration to verify and cross-check the given and left out information about the positive cases and deaths. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray also said that the Maharashtra government will not hide any information related to COVID.

  • Centre asks Bihar to share details on reconciled data of 3971 new deaths due to COVID-19

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: The Union government has asked Bihar to share the date and district wise details of the COVID-19 deaths, two days after it reconciled data and reported 3,971 new deaths within a day due to the infection disease.

    The Centre also said that states have been advised repeatedly through multiple mediums and through deployment of Central teams for recording of deaths in accordance with the laid down guidelines.

    The government also emphasised that as early as May last year, to avoid inconsistency or confusion in the number of deaths being reported, ICMR had issued “Guidance for appropriate recording of COVID-19 related deaths in India” for correct recording of all deaths by states as per ICD-10 codes recommended by WHO for mortality coding.

    The Union Health Ministry has regularly emphasized the need for a robust reporting mechanism for monitoring district wise cases and deaths on a daily basis, the government said in a statement. It clarified that while the government reported a total of 6148 COVID-19 deaths on June 10, this spike in deaths was on account of 3971 deaths reported by Bihar due to data reconciliation. 

    “In the instant case, the Union government has written to the state of Bihar to provide a detailed date and district wise break-up of the reconciled number of deaths to the Union health ministry,” the statement added.

  • COVID-19 death toll crosses 10,000-mark in Maharashtra’s Thane district

    By PTI
    THANE: The COVID-19 death toll in Thane district of Maharashtra has crossed the 10,000-mark as 65 more patients succumbed to the infection, an official said on Friday.

    These deaths were reported on Thursday.

    The district’s fatality count now stood at 10,056.

    The infection tally in the district has reached 5,23,497 with the addition of 498 cases, he said.

    The COVID-19 mortality rate of Thane is 1.92 per cent, the official said.

    In neighboring Palghar district, the coronavirus case count has gone up to 1,12,900, while the death toll is 2,220, another official said.