Allegations of fudged Covid deaths politically motivated: Delhi Govt
NEW DELHI: The Delhi government on Saturday dismissed the allegations of mismatch in the number of deaths by four major hospitals in the city, citing it as political gimmick.
An official on the condition of anonymity denied any such issue and said, “This is a completely false and politically motivated move. There is an Audit committee of doctors that investigates the deaths reported by COVID-19 hospital and ensures that every death is reported. There’s no interference of any kind in the work of this Committee.”
The official called the report politically motivated adding that every fact is being presented in front of the public. “It is unfortunate such politically motivated false allegations are being made when the entire government is fighting Corona. Every single fact is being presented before the public correctly and transparently. For instance, in the last few days the number of cases in Delhi has increased. We reported the same correctly,” said the official.
The statement from the state government comes after confusion prevailed over the number of deaths due to Coronavirus in the national Capital, with data from four hospitals showing that 92 people succumbed to the infection as against 68 fatalities reported by the Delhi government.
Speaking on the same Medical Superintendent of Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital said, “We are regularly giving our data to Delhi Government. Don’t know why incorrect data is reflected. Even total number of Covid-19 positive cases is incorrect. We have informed them many times but still not corrected.”
Meanwhile, the death toll of 68 shared by the Delhi government in its health bulletin on Saturday is based on data collected from 10 hospitals, including AIIMS, Safdarjung Hospital, RML Hospital and Lady Hardinge Medical College.
According to the bulletin, AIIMS (Delhi and Jhajjar) reported two deaths, Safdarjung Hospital reported four, RML 26 and Lady Hardinge Medical
College had none till Saturday.
However, an AIIMS official said that the Delhi Trauma Centre and Jhajjar has recorded a total of 14 deaths.
According to All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Medical Superintendent Dr D K Sharma, the discrepancy could be because the government is only counting the fatalities from the Trauma Centre, which has been converted into a dedicated Covid19 hospital, and has not taken into account data from the Jhajjar facility.
The total number of COVID-19 cases in the national Capital climbed to 6,542 after
224 more people were infected by the Coronavirus, the Delhi government said on Saturday. The fresh cases were reported between 4 pm to midnight of May 8. No fresh death due to the virus was reported in this period and so far has reported 68 deaths. Of the total cases reported in the city, 4,454 are active while 2,020 patients have been cured of the disease, the health bulletin said.
Delhi government has issued an order regarding providing treatment/quarantine facilities to COVID-19 positive officers/officials of the government, autonomous bodies, corporations and local bodies and
their family members at three designated hotel premises.
The government has also issued an order for constituting an enquiry committee to look into the various aspects of major discrepancies in the reports of a lab in the national Capital. An order has been issued to furnish compliance report by all the ICMR authorized labs that no lab report for COVID-19 is pending beyond 24 hours in their respective labs.
South Delhi’s three areas — Chirag Delhi, Khidki Extension and Deoli — were de-contained on Saturday, bringing the total number of containment zones in the city to around 80.