India reports world’s highest single-day COVID-19 death toll

The country breached a new record on Thursday with 6,148 new fatalities being recorded — the highest-ever single-day death toll from Covid-19 across the world.

The huge jump in the number came after Bihar revised its figures to account for people who succumbed to the disease at home or in private hospitals. After the review, the state health department notified that its death toll has increased to 9,400 from about 5,400, a 72.8% hike.

Four of the state’s 38 districts showed a rise of at least 200% in the toll.

According to the additional secretary (health) Pratyaya Amrit, the increase was due to deaths reported at private hospitals, under home isolation and of post-Covid complications. “These deaths had remained unaccounted earlier,” he said.

The exercise to audit the Covid deaths was taken up after the Patna high court flagged irregularities in death figures in Buxar district on 17 May. The government constituted committees at the district level, comprising a civil surgeon, an additional chief medical officer and a senior medical officer.

“We verified Covid deaths from different sources, including private hospitals, crematoriums and the Patna Municipal Corporation for those dying under home isolation,” Chandrashekhar Singh, Patna’s district magistrate, was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.

Previously, the United States had recorded 5,444 Covid-19 deaths on 12 February.

Although India’s tally of new cases had started decreasing by the end of May, the death toll had continued its upward tick as states reviewed their backlog data.

Cases in India
New Covid-19 cases saw a slight increase for the second day on Thursday with 94,052 more people testing positive, according to data by the Union health ministry.

The number stood at 92,596 the previous day. With the addition of new infections, the cumulative tally has reached 2,91,83,121.

The active cases in the country have reduced to 11,67,952 after 60 days comprising 4 per cent of the total infections, while the national Covid recovery rate has improved to 94.77%. Live Mint