Covid-19: No rise in Vidarbha toll after reconciliation

NAGPUR: The state’s reconciled Covid-19 death toll, released on Tuesday, was supposed to add 24 cases in five districts of Amravati division, taking Vidarbha’s death toll from 108 to 132. However, Amravati divisional commissioner Dr Piyush Singh clarified that all the 24 cases mentioned in reconciliation were already reported by authorities in his division.
“We have verified and informed the state government that the list of 24 (deaths) they shared are all names we have already reported,” Singh told TOI.This means there will be no rise in death count of Vidarbha due to the reconciliation.
The state health department’s report issued on June 16 had added the highest 14 out of 24 deaths in Akola district, followed by Amravati (6), Buldhana (2), Washim (1) and Yavatmal (1).
“We were shocked to see 14 deaths in Akola were not properly reported as Covid-19 deaths. We have been meticulously reporting each and every death so far. After verification, we are confident that no such misreporting has happened in Akola,” said resident deputy collector Sanjay Khadse.
Akola has reported 56 deaths — highest in Vidarbha so far. “Many patients were brought dead to Akola GMCH and their swab samples were collected post death. Their cause of death could be different, but as they tested positive for Covid-19, we have added all such cases to the Covid-19 toll as per protocol,” he added.
Amravati district collector Shailesh Naval also concurred. “They (the reported deaths) are already included in district death report and the district data remains the same as on portal of GOI,” he said.
As per the reconciliation report, two deaths had gone unreported in Buldhana. Here too, collector Suman Rawat-Chandra clarified that all deaths in Buldhana were properly reported.
“There are five deaths because of Covid-19 so far, and the same have been uploaded on the portal. It gets reflected after some time,” she said. According to her, real time data was uploaded promptly.
A senior official from the divisional health department told TOI that the misreporting of Covid-19 case is a reality in Mumbai, where more than 800 such cases have happened. But, as far as Vidarbha is concerned, the real-time reporting is being done here.
No uniformity in case reporting
Washim, where the state health department has asked authorities to add one more death to their count, has a different issue. “We are following the ICD-10 guidelines. There have been two deaths in Washim so far. One is a local resident while other is a person from UP who tested positive and died here. Both have been included in our tally,” said Washim collector Hrisheekesh Modak.
A man from Washim had tested positive in Wardha and eventually died there in May last week. As per rules, this death should be added to the tally of Wardha district. “We have been asked to add this death in our tally. But, the person tested positive and died in Wardha district. So, we have to seek clarification about it. If this death gets added to our tally just because the deceased is a resident of Washim district, the deceased from UP who is already in our list needs to be shifted to that state’s tally,” said Modak. He added that the issue can be resolved by two district collectors soon.
There is still some uncertainty regarding reporting deaths. TOI had reported on Covid-19 deaths going unreported due to administration’s way of working on June 6. The question was whether to identify patients by their native district (as per Aadhaar card address) or by the place where they tested positive and were treated.