In graphs: How Bihar’s data revision affects its COVID figures

Last week Bihar added 3,951 uncounted COVID-related deaths to its tally, taking the state’s overall toll to 9,375. The health department said it had to revise the data as the number of deaths caused due to the infection in private hospitals and clinics until June 7 were still not accounted for.

Although each death is a personal tragedy, given India’s huge death toll – more than 3.63 lakh officially – the revision does not substantially change the overall scenario. But the addition of nearly 4,000 unregistered deaths does change Bihar’s position in the list of states worst-hit by the pandemic.

As of June 12, the death rate in Bihar is 1.32 per cent. The death rate was 0.76 per cent on June 8, before the revised figures were announced.

Similarly, as a result of this revision, June 9 turned out as the day with the highest number of COVID deaths in India since the beginning of the pandemic.

Bihar is now the 16th worst-affected state in terms of fatality rate, data show. The states with the highest death rate are Punjab (2.63 per cent), Uttarakhand (2.06 per cent) and Nagaland (1.90 per cent).

Bihar could soon become the 12^th state to report more than 10,000 COVID deaths. The state has reported about 80 per cent of the deaths during the pandemic’s second wave. Until April 1, when cases began to spike again, Bihar had reported only 1,998 deaths.