'On June 16, BMC admitted that it had not reported 862 Covid-19 deaths in Mumbai, and added the figure to the official toll. This took the city’s fatality rate from 3.7 to 5.2 per cent — almost double the national average. The Indian Express has now accessed medical records of a few more deceased Covid-19 patients or those suspected to have been infected, which are yet to be reported by BMC officially as Covid-19 deaths, an indication that there could be many more like them.
'The percentage of deaths from COVID-19 in Gujarat is among the highest in the country, even as the number of tests remains among the lowest, government denials to the contrary notwithstanding. Numbers apart, the fact that the state was consistently trying to cut down on testing got some credence when on 10 May, it made mandatory for all private hospitals to get government approval before testing patients, who are admitted for other ailments, for the coronavirus...'
'...As the number of COVID-19 deaths and new cases continues to surge in India, the media briefing by the health ministry on Wednesday was less about actual numbers and more about drawing a comparison to show how India apparently did better than the world in general and worst-affected nations in particular. But the ministry did not provide any comparisons between the number of tests conducted in India and other countries...'
'...Testing, our Achilles heel, remains behind an iron curtain. The Indian Council for Medical Research, the organisation leading India’s fight against Covid-19 (especially with regards to testing), is a scientific research body. One would expect it to release readily accessible and detailed data on India’s testing numbers and trajectory using graphs and charts on its website. Instead, we see an almost inexplicable antipathy to sharing any sort of data. There is a single daily update on the total number of tests done in India.
'The number of Covid-19 deaths in Delhi has been under the scanner for discrepancies between the government figures and those the hospitals have reported, leading to an upwards revision to 115 until Thursday, 14 May. But now, data accessed by ThePrint raises new questions about even this revised number of deaths in the city. The consolidated figures for Covid-related deaths provided by the designated cremation and burial grounds in the national capital is 443, which includes confirmed as well as suspected cases...'
'Last week, The New Indian Express, one of India’s major English newspapers, pulled down an article that was heavily critical of the Centre’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak. The article, entitled ‘Centre’s COVID-19 Communication Plan: hold back data, gag agencies and scientists’, discussed the government’s reluctance to share outbreak-related data and attempts to muzzle scientists.
'The number of coronavirus casualties reported by Lok Nayak Hospital, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Lady Hardinge Medical College and the Delhi and Jhajjar centres of AIIMS stands at 116, according to data from these hospitals and confirmed by their officials to The Indian Express. This is higher than the Delhi government’s official Covid-19 death toll, which stood at 66 until Thursday night. According to the Delhi government’s daily bulletin, a total of 33 deaths have been recorded from these specific hospitals...'
'In most developing countries, including India, the quality of data on the cause of death is very poor. This is because most people die in rural areas and at home, a medically certified death in a hospital is rare, and medical certificates more often than not are filled incorrectly. Dr Prabhat Jha, founding director of the Centre for Global Health Research in Toronto, is one of the world’s leading experts on mortality in India. He is a professor of disease control and an expert advisor to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as well as various governments...'
'The number of official Covid deaths in Malegaon in Maharashtra is just 12 since the first case in early April but, overall, the number of deaths in this city has shown an unusual surge. At 580 deaths for April, as per civic records obtained by The Indian Express, it’s almost twice the figure for the same month last year (277) and a 48 per cent jump over the number of deaths in March this year (see chart).
'Patients labelled as ‘suspected Covid’ during admission to hospitals here are not being tested for the novel coronavirus even after death in a bid to dress up infection figures, charged opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday. He said at least 44 bodies of ‘suspected Covid’ patients have been released from the civic-run Nair Hospital — a dedicated Covid-19 facility now — without the coronavirus test. There are several such instances from other hospitals too, said Fadnavis, who tweeted details of the letter he’s sent to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray...'
