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Reconciled figure put Pune’s total fatalities at 545
PMC playing ‘add-up’ with data as compared to Maharashtra health department.
The city on Wednesday counted 76 deaths related to the Covid-19 infection, including a reconciliation of 70 fatalities, taking the city’s total to 545, according to the Maharashtra health department.
While the state health department reported 545 Covid deaths in Pune, with the addition of 18 fatalities on Wednesday, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) reported 481 deaths – a discrepancy of 64 between the two data sets.
“This difference in statistics is probably because some labs may have not have reported Covid-positive deaths. However, I have sought all the latest data and will reissue the figures by Thursday,” said Deepak Mhaisekar, divisional commissioner, Pune division.
The Maharashtra health department’s office in its daily report on Tuesday, June 16, reported 527 deaths in Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).
In addition to the difference in the Covid-19 death toll between the state health department and the PMC, there is also a difference in the number of progressive positives reported.
While the state reported 11,121 progressive positive in PMC, the Pune civic body claims the number is 10,643.
The state health department reconciled death figures across the state on Tuesday, and following this exercise, 1,328 deaths were added for Maharashtra.
As of Wednesday, as per the state, there are 941 progressive positive cases and 33 deaths in Pune rural; 1,1121 progressive positives and 545 deaths in PMC; and 1,188 progressive positives and 32 deaths in PCMC.
Rubal Aggarwal, PMC’s additional commissioner said, “We only include those who are residents within PMC limits. Last week we had deaths of those from Pune rural too, reported from Pune hospitals. We are not hiding any deaths and our reports are updated and transparent.”
District collector Naval Kishore Ram said that he will have to look into the issue before commenting on it.
Even though the city reported its first fatality on March 30 from a private hospital, the death is not counted among the Pune numbers since the deceased was a Thane resident.
