COVID-19 patient's death reported after 24 hours in Indore

In the second such incident in the last three days in Madhya Pradesh”s Indore, the death of a COVID-19 patient has been reported by authorities after a gap of 24 days, a Health department official confirmed on Monday (June 8).

The incidents of alleged delay in reporting deaths of COVID-19 patients have raised the demand for an inquiry by the Central government. In the earlier incident, death of a COVID-19 patient was reported by authorities on the night of Saturday (June 6), 14 days after its occurrence.

In the latest case, the similar information has been disclosed after a delay of 24 days on June 7 night.A top Health department official said on Monday that a 56-year-old man, who was admitted in a private hospital here in a critical condition on May 13, succumbed to coronavirus infection on May 14.

But, the official information about his death was shared 24 days later in a health bulletin on June 7 night. When asked about the delay, the official said the Health department had been searching for records of patients who died of COVID-19 in local hospitals when it came to know about the latest fatality.

The purported delay in providing information about some COVID-19 deaths to the health department will be investigated, the official added.

The opposition Congress and some NGOs have been alleging that health department has been giving out information about COVID-19 deaths in Indore district “as per its convenience”, which they said is putting credibility of the entire data in doubt.

“The continuous delay in sharing the official information about the patients who died of COVID-19 in Indore is a serious issue which raises doubts about the official data on the pandemic,” said Amulya Nidhi, co-coordinator of Jan Swasthya Abhiyan Madhya Pradesh, an NGO.

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He demanded that the Central government set up an independent committee to investigate the matter and that statements of kin of the deceased patients be recorded.

Meanwhile, the COVID-19 case count in Indore has mounted by 36 to 3,785 in the last 24 hours and death toll to 157, officials said. A total of 2,454 people have been discharged from hospitals after recovering from the viral infection.

Four Rajya Sabha seats from Karnataka are falling vacant this month after Rajeev Gowda and BK Hari Prasad of the Congress, Prabhakar Kore of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and D Kupendra Reddy of the JD(S) retire.