After Chennai, Delhi, COVID-19 Death Mismatch Allegations In Mumbai, Says 950 Deaths Unreported
On Tuesday, the official death toll in Mumbai due to COVID-19 stood at 2,250, the highest anywhere in India.But the state has been hit by allegations of COVID-19 death cover-up as the opposition BJP alleged that nearly 1000 deaths in Mumbai have not been reported.?
Maharashtra government has not reported as many as 950 COVID-19 deaths from Mumbai, which amounts to a violation of the ICMR guidelines, senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis alleged.?
In a letter addressed to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Fadnavis said, "Some 950 deaths due to COVID-19 are still not reported (in Mumbai). It is a very serious matter and risky as well".?
Fadnavis claimed 500 of the 950 deaths that had occurred in various hospitals in Mumbai were not even referred to the death audit committee.?
"451 deaths have been termed as non-COVID deaths by the death audit committee. However, as per the guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), all these deaths had occurred due to COVID-19," the Leader of Opposition alleged.?
We demand clarification on under whose pressure the committee reported those deaths as non-COVID-19, he said.?
"The BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) has refused to follow the ICMR guidelines and certain deaths were not recorded as occurred due to COVID-19. Despite clear guidelines from the ICMR, why the audit committee showed those deaths as non-COVID-19 deaths?" the former chief minister asked.?
"There is another incident where some 500 deaths that occurred in various hospitals in Mumbai were not even referred to the death audit committee. I want to know what action state is going to take," he further said.?
"The BMC has suppressed around 950 deaths. There have been around 3,300 COVID-19 deaths while the BMC has revealed only around 2,250 deaths," state BJP vice president Dr. Kirit Somaiya said.
Earlier a similar allegation had surfaced in Chennai, where it was alleged that some deaths recorded in May as well as in the first week of June did not make it to the official figures.Following the allegations, the work on the reconciliation of COVID-19 death figures in Chennai has already begun with the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC).?
However, the biggest mismatch seems to be in Delhi, where the official COVID-19 death toll as of Tuesday is 1,400.But the data from MCD last week showed that between March till June 10, there were 2,098 cremations of COVID-19 patients. The BJP made the allegation at a time when the AAP government's figures stood at 984.
