Jalandhar Municipal Corporation, Health Department figures on Covid fatalities just don’t match

Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, June 6

The records of the Health Department and the Municipal Corporation, Jalandhar, show a mismatch of around 200 Covid deaths in May. The data for April also had a gap of 54 Covid deaths.

The mismatch in the figures raises a question if the Covid deaths in the district are being under-reported.

A Health Department official said, “The death of those in home isolation might go unreported, leading to a mismatch in Covid death figures given by the two authorities.”

While the MC records say 485 persons died due to Covid-19 in the district in May, the Health Department puts the figure at 296. The Covid death figures, as per the MC and Health Department records, for April were 321 and 167, respectively. As per Health Department records, there were 195 Covid deaths in the district in March.

Official spokesperson for Covid Dr TP Singh said, “We will impart special training to our teams for maintaining proper records.” MC Commissioner Karunesh Sharma said, “The cause of death in the MC certificates is recorded as per the documents provided by institutions (hospitals) where the patients died, or as per the statement of their wards and supporting documents.”

As per the MC records, the total number of deaths (1,947) in the district in May this year went up by 64 per cent as compared with the figure (1,237) for May, 2020.

The total number of deaths in March, April and May this year stood at 7,060, while the corresponding figure last year was 3,845, clearly an increase of about 93 per cent.