Bihar's Covid toll up to 9,429 after govt audit

PATNA: The overall Covid death toll in Bihar jumped to 9,429 after the state health department on Wednesday added 3,951 more fatalities while announcing the audit report of unregistered deaths caused by the infection so far.
However, most of the 3,951 deaths happened during the second wave of the pandemic this year. The toll in Bihar was 5,424 till June 7 and 20 more Covid patients died in the past 24 hours.
Now, Bihar jumped from 17th to 12th position in Covid deaths among all states and UTs across the country.The additional figures increased the Covid-19 mortality in Bihar by around 72.8%.
As per the latest figures, maximum deaths were reported in Patna, taking the overall district toll to 2,303. Muzaffarpur reported 609 deaths, followed by Nalanda (463), Begusarai (454), Purvi Champaran (425), Darbhanga (342) and Madhubani (317).
According to the additional chief secretary (health) Pratyaya Amrit, the additional fatalities are mainly during the second wave of the pandemic, which also included people who died with Covid complications after recovery. He pointed out that all the data is cumulative as the death toll was around 1,600 in March 2021.
Addressing the media, he said the assessment of unreported Covid-19 deaths was carried out in all the districts by constituting a team at medical college and hospitals so that families of Covid-19 victims would not be deprived of financial assistance.
“The audit was important to assess the ground reality of Covid fatalities in transparent manner to pay ex gratia of Rs4 lakh to each victim’s family. So far, 3,737 families have been paid the ex gratia amount,” Amrit said.
He also said during the surge of second wave, there were reports of unregistered Covid deaths in private hospitals and unfortunate deaths of patients on way to hospitals. The state government then decided to conduct death audit in all districts and issued detailed instructions for the same.
The department formed a three-member team in all medical college and hospitals and at district level. At district level, a team of civil surgeon (CS), acting chief medical officer and CS-appointed medical officer was constituted for assessment of deaths in home isolation, Covid care centres, dedicated Covid health centres, private hospitals and transition (ambulance or any other vehicle).
Amrit said departmental action would be taken against such people (officers) who failed to provide the Covid death data on time. “There were challenges during the second wave of Covid-19, but the information of deaths should have been sent on time with special vigilance and sensitivity,” he said.
Meanwhile, Amrit also said that as many as 513 cases of mucormycosis or black fungus had been reported in the state so far and 90 of them recovered, 55 died while 368 were undergoing treatment at different health facilities. He said 111 mucor patients were admitted at IGIMS-Patna, 83 at AIIMS-Patna, 40 at PMCH, nine in JLNMCH-Bhagalpur, two at VIMS-Pawapuri and two more admitted at NMCH-Patna.
He added: “The department has received 1,700 vials of Amphotericin B injection from the government of India, of which 500 each was given to AIIMS-P and IGIMS and 100 vials each to PMCH, JLNMCH and VIMS.”