After a controversy over coronavirus death numbers, the Delhi government has sought data of funerals held as per Covid-19 death from the north and south municipal corporations.
The data will be used to carry out another audit and verification of deaths due to Covid-19.
India Today TV has accessed a letter written by Delhi government Health Secretary Padmini Singla to the municipal commissioners of the two civic bodies to provide copies of the death registered and other associated documents such as lab reports and doctor certificates with entries till the May 17. The letter states that data of the cremation and burial at these designated grounds be urgently shared with them.
The data from Nighambodh Ghat, Punjabi Bagh and the ITO Kotla Graveyard will be used for the verification process. A corporation official stated that the copies have been submitted. A source has revealed that the Delhi government has been informed about more than 500 such burials and cremations in the city.
Questions have been raised on Delhi government’s daily health bulletin numbers on Covid-19. on May 11, when the death figures from burial grounds and crematoriums were beyond 300, the death figures released by the Delhi government showed only 73 deaths. The number of deaths that are being reported are severely mismatched. As on May 19, Delhi’s death toll stands at 166.
Delhi government continues to change the format of Covid-19 bulletins. On May 14, the Delhi government decided to do away with a column of death figures being given out by hospitals treating coronavirus patients. On May 15, the Delhi government changed the definition of what qualifies to be death from coronavirus. On May 19, the column on daily new cases was removed, before which even the daily cases from containment zones were removed.
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