‘Backlog effect’: Covid death toll rises in three UP districts

LUCKNOW As many as 35 deaths were added to Lucknow’s Covid fatality count in the past four days, of which 24 were from backlog data

LUCKNOW As many as 35 deaths were added to Lucknow’s Covid fatality count in the past four days, of which 24 were from backlog data. As part of a reconciliatation exercise, deaths that took place at hospitals (mostly private) earlier but could not be added to the toll are now being uploaded to the tally of various districts in UP, said officials.

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Sample this: No fresh death took place in Lucknow on Monday, but the backlog deaths kept the figure at 12. So far, Lucknow has reported 2,569 deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic.

A similar exercise is being undertaken in Agra and Prayagraj. The backlog entries will take another week as death audit is in progress, said a senior health department official.

“Several deaths that took place at different hospitals are now being added after the death audit. The process will take a few days,” said Dr Sanjay Bhatnagar, chief medical officer, Lucknow.

Majority of the backlog deaths are those that happened soon after the patient was admitted and before any test or proper examination of symptoms could be done. These fatalities, if found to be due to Covid in the death audit, are being added to the state data, said officials.

As per the data released by the district medical and health officials in Prayagraj, there were no Covid related deaths in the district between June 14 and 20, 2021.

However, as per the state-level data released from Lucknow, 15 deaths were entered in the database for Prayagraj during this week, including a maximum 11 deaths on June 20, one death each on June 19 and 17, besides another two deaths on June 14, said officials.

Dr AK Tiwari, Covid nodal officer in Prayagraj, said he had no idea regarding the deaths shown in the state-level data chart released from Lucknow during the past week, but confirmed that no deaths took place in Prayagraj between June 14 and 20.

“It is possible that these are deaths of people belonging to Prayagraj who died in other districts earlier and details of which had not been entered into the database by those districts as part of reconciliation process. However, I do not have any exact information regarding this,” he added.

In Agra, the death toll due to Covid now stands at 451. In the beginning of June, there was sharp increase in the toll as the backlog of death figures, primarily in April, was added.

“We have already updated the list with backlog deaths as and when information came in the first half of June. We are at the end of the process as only random cases remain to be listed now. Only four to five deaths have taken place in the last fortnight,” stated Dr RC Pandey, chief medical officer.