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Maharashtra reconciled 13K Covid-19 deaths since May 21
Maharashtra added over 13,700 deaths in its data reconciliation process over the past 22 days
Maharashtra added over 13,700 deaths in its data reconciliation process over the past 22 days. Since May 21, the state reconciled 13,708 Covid-19 fatalities and added to the toll, health department data showed. However, state health department officials clarified that the reconciliation process was owing to delayed reporting of deaths and not because of underreporting or misreporting. State surveillance officer Dr Pradeep Awate said that there is no question of hiding the death count.
As per the state health department data, between May 21 and June 12, Maharashtra added 21,715 fatalities to its toll, of which 13,708 were reconciliation deaths. In the past three days, the state has added 1522, 2,213 and 1,606 deaths respectively through the reconciliation process. The cumulative number of people who died due to the pandemic in the state now stands at 108,333.
Officials said that the reporting of deaths on the Centre’s portal is a time-consuming process and the large number of Covid-19 cases in April and May led to delay in reporting of these deaths.
A statement from the health department read, “The scope of data on Covid-19 cases, recovery of patients and deaths is vast. For that, the state’s integrated disease surveillance programme is working in a transparent manner... Due to technical reasons, there is a delay in reporting data. However, the districts and municipal corporations have been asked to immediately complete it.”
A senior health department official said that the districts update cases on CV Analytics portal and deaths on Covid-19 portal of the Union government. The official said that the process of reconciliation of Covid-19 cases and deaths happens fortnightly.
“However, there was a delay on part of private hospitals and district administration due to the load during the second wave. Private hospitals have been provided with a “facility app” to upload discharges and deaths, but they do not do it regularly. Districts or municipal corporations then compile this data and add the data. Besides that, laboratories have to upload positive cases on ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) portal. When there is a delay from that end, there cannot be real-time reporting of deaths and discharges,” the official said.
Another senior official said that the parameters for categorising a death as Covid and non-Covid are laid down by ICMR and World Health Organization (WHO).
“It generally takes five-seven days to classify a death as Covid or non-Covid. If a person has comorbidities, the doctors have to look at the medical history. Death audit committees at district level check the health complication and cause of death. If they are unable to categorise it due to multiple complications, then it is referred to the state audit committee,” the official said.
On Saturday, Maharashtra added 10,697 fresh Covid-19 cases and 1,966 fatalities, including 1,606 reconciliation deaths. Out of the 1,606 deaths, 315 occurred in Nashik, 276 in Nagpur, 230 at Pune, 149 in Satara, 138 in Ahmednagar, 126 in Thane, 41 in Sangli, 36 in Jalna, 34 in Ratnagiri, 30 in Dhule, 29 in Nanded, 28 at Buldhana, 27 in Palghar, 19 each at Latur and Raigad, 16 in Solapur, 13 in Yavatmal, 12 in Chandrapur, 11 at Aurangabad, nine in Gondia, eight each at Jalgaon and Parbhani, seven in Wardha, six each at Beed and Osmanabad, five in Kolhapur, three in Sindhudurg, two each at Akola and Amravati and one in Bhandara.
