The Delhi government stopped releasing yet another information on the COVID-19 outbreak in the city. The government on Thursday stopped sharing hospital-wise figures of COVID-19-related deaths in the city, in a daily health bulletin.
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The government spokesperson did not comment on the reason why the data is not provided. “The total number of deaths sent by hospitals is being audited and it will be updated again once it is complete,” an official source said.
The number of COVID-19-related deaths reported by the Delhi government has been less than the data coming from the hospitals.
The Congress and the BJP have accused Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of hiding the actual number of cases and deaths due to COVID-19 from the public, an allegation the Delhi government has denied.
Though the total number of deaths reported by the Delhi government till Thursday is 115, the number of such deaths from just two city hospitals until Wednesday, accessed by The Hindu, is 176.
“There have been 69 COVID-19-related deaths in our hospital and six people were brought dead. All of them [75] were COVID-19 positive,” said Minakshi Bhardwaj, medical superintendent of Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.
Similarly, there were at least 81 such deaths in Delhi government’s Lok Nayak Hospital till Wednesday, according to the hospital.
The government has maintained that hospitals send the number of deaths to a death audit committee, appointed by the government. Only after the committee can certify the deaths, those will be counted in the health bulletin. On Tuesday, Health Minister Satyendar Jain had said that some hospitals were not sending death summaries to the government in time. “We have written to hospitals to send reports of deaths immediately,” the Minister said.
Lack of details
The Delhi government, from April 15, had stopped providing details of “under investigation” cases, which are cases in which how the patient got infected by the virus is unknown, suggesting chances of community transmission.
The government also had stopped proving details of COVID-19 tests being done and later restarted it following a High Court order on May 4. But the Delhi government is still not providing the details of pending tests.
