On Wednesday (June 9) India reported highest number of deaths due to corona virus–it was 6,148. Besides, 94,052 fresh cases of COVID-19 were reported in the last 24 hours. This huge jump in fatalities is due to the revision of figures by the Bihar government.
According to Bihar’s health department, 3,951 deaths have been added to the toll after verification. Till Tuesday, Bihar had reported only 5,478 deaths. Thus, the total death toll due to COVID-19 in Bihar jumped to touch 9,429.
Though it is not yet clear as to when these additional deaths took place yet a breakup was provided for all 38 districts.
However, state health minister Mangal Pandey was quoted in the media as saying that the figure has been revised to bring about transparency and that the government has no intention to hide anything.
But media reports suggest that the figure was revised only after the Patna High Court had pulled up the Nitish Kumar government as gross discrepancies were found in the number of actual deaths and the one disclosed by the state government. It needs to be mentioned that a section of media exposed the mis-match between the government figure and the one collected from crematoriums and graveyards.
Now the state government has hinted that action would be taken against those who have really indulged in hiding the fatalities.
Notwithstanding the latest revision by the Nitish Kumar government, media reports suggest that the state government had still not collected the full figures from many private hospitals.
As Bihar has reported around 1,600 deaths in the first wave of about one year, about 8,000 have officially died in the second wave in the last two months. It needs to be mentioned that Bihar is only second to Delhi in the number of deaths of doctors. By this logic, there is still scope for the further revision of actual number of deaths due to the pandemic in Bihar.
