7,433 Covid-19 positive cases added to Nagpur's July-September tally

NAGPUR: The number of Covid-19 positive cases was underreported by 7,433 between July and September in the district due to brazen violations by a private laboratory. Now, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has updated the cases on its portal, which will increase the district’s cumulative cases and also change the city’s statistics like positivity rate (TPR), case fatality rate (CFR) etc.
Municipalcommissioner Radhakrishnan B in a press release issued on Wednesday said, “A private laboratory did not upload testing data on ICMR’s portal. NMC learnt about it and now ICMR has uploaded 22,258 test results on the portal. Of these, 7,433 are positive tests. Therefore, city’s cumulative cases will increase. There is nothing to worry as these cases are not active and of the past.”
The name of the private laboratory that violated rules was not mentioned in the press release.
NMC had levied fine of Rs5 lakh on Dhruv Laboratory for lapses in uploading data, and also suspended its permission for testing for some period. NMC collected data which was not uploaded by the laboratory on ICMR portal and sent it to the state government to be forwarded to ICMR for updation.
NMC additional municipal commissioner Jalaj Sharma said, “These cases are from July till September 15, when the violations were exposed by NMC. All cases have been uploaded on ICMR portal but they will reflect in NMC’s releases for press and social media on Thursday.”
Failure of the laboratory to upload 7,433 positive cases on ICMR portal in that time means NMC had no idea about these patients. So, the civic body did not trace close contacts of so many patients and also could not ensure measures to prevent spread of the disease. This laboratory was the first private establishment from Vidarbha to get permission for testing for Covid-19 in first week of May.
Admitting that the laboratory’s fault resulted in non-tracing of close contacts at that time, Sharma said, “NMC exposed this and also ensured updation in city’s tally. It is not the case that Dhruv Laboratory did not upload all cases. The laboratory used to upload cases but not all due to various reasons. Now, all private laboratories are regularly uploading cases on ICMR portal.”
As per press release of District Civil Surgeon (CS), there were 91,988 in the district as on Wednesday. The tally should be more as ICMR has updated the cases on its portal. This was reflected to a great extent in the press release issued by the state’s public health department. The cases in the district were 98,099 as per this release.
Updation of cases now on ICMR portal will also mean the number and statistics like TPR, CFR etc of July to September 15 were not proper.
On Wednesday, the district registered 21 deaths taking the toll to 3,000. The district is fourth among 35 in the state after Mumbai (9,912), Pune (6,581) and Thane (5,238) to register 3,000 fatalities. If population is considered, the district stands at fifth position. Nashik is at fourth position and has less cases and deaths compared to the district.
Among the 3,000 deceased, 2,092 were residents of the city, 535 of rural parts of the district, and 373 from other districts who tested positive and died here.
Actually, the fatalities were more than 3,000 as on Wednesday since the data of CS and NMC differs to a great extent. CS had reconciled positive cases to match with the data of NMC but is yet to consider difference in number of deaths.
The span between each 100 deaths in the district has increased with decline in number of fatalities from beginning of October. During peak of Covid-19 in last two weeks of August and entire September month, 100 deaths were registered in a span of 1-3 days. The latest span between 2,900 and 3,000 deaths took five days.
MONTH-WISE DEATHS
Month — Cases — Progressive
March — 0-------------0
April----- 2-------------2
May----- 9-------------11
June----- 14-----------25
July------ 101----------126
August---919--------1,045
Sept-----1,465-------2,510
Oct--------490--------3,000