TIRUCHY: Four people died in 24 hours in Tiruchy due to COVID-19. While three of the deceased were being treated at Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital (MGMGH), the fourth patient was being treated at a private hospital.
On Wednesday, an 81-year-old man who ran a hotel in Tiruchy died in a private hospital. On Thursday afternoon, farmer leader Puliyur Nagarajan died at MGMGH of COVID with the co-morbid condition of renal failure. He was admitted on Wednesday and tested positive for COVID. A lady from Chennai, who was admitted in the MGMGH, also died on Wednesday. She had undergone a kidney transplant recently. The fourth patient was a 57 year old male who died in the MGMGH on Thursday evening.
With this, Tiruchy has registered ten deaths at MGMGH and at least 5 deaths at private hospitals. Of the ten deaths at MGMGH, seven are from Tiruchy and one each from Chennai, Dindigul and Thiruvallur.
However, of the total deaths only four have been accounted for in the bulletin. Not a single death at a private hospital has been published in the bulletin.
There are six private hospitals in Tiruchy treating COVID patients. All these hospitals have been asked by the authorities to report deaths only to them, and not reveal it outside.
"We have been dutifully reporting deaths to the authorities as it happens. We don't know why it is not being reported. We have strict instructions to not report the deaths directly, hence our hands are tied," said a Chairman of a private hospital.
Sources at a private hospital confirmed with The New Indian Express that four patients had died of COVID-19 in their hospital.
In another private hospital, one patient succumbed to the viral infection - the video of the burial had gone viral on social media.
Senior officials in the health department said that all the deaths will be recorded in the bulletin.
"There is no question of hiding deaths. We report all the deaths to the concerned authorities in Chennai. They have a process, and all the deaths will be reported. We are not hiding anything," said the official in the health department.
The same official confirmed to TNIE that the five deaths at private hospitals had not been recorded in the bulletin yet. He said that three of them were from other districts and two from Tiruchy, and are yet to be published.
The death of a 25-year-old man from Pullambadi in Tiruchy after a road accident on June 13 who also tested positive for the virus, has also not been published in the bulletin. The Collector S Sivarasu said that since it was a road accident, it would not be recorded in the bulletin.