Daily Covid deaths in Bengaluru lowest in a month-and-a-half

The state government on Tuesday reported the lowest number of Covid-19 fatalities in a month-and-a-half.

In Tuesday’s Covid-19 bulletin, 179 statewide Covid deaths were reported, 44 of which are from Bengaluru Urban.

This is a dip from the 199 Covid deaths reported on Monday.

State Health Commissioner Dr Thrilok Chandra said the low numbers are due to the fact that a long-standing backlog of deaths had finally been reconciled into the government’s database “for the most part”.

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Details released on Tuesday also revealed that some fatalities from other districts such as Dharwad, Koppal and Mysuru continue to be backlog deaths, but strikingly, none were from Bengaluru Urban.

“The issue was due to private hospitals not disclosing fatalities in a timely manner,” Dr Chandra said. “This was a problem last year as well. It prompted us this year to visit various hospitals to assess death records.”

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The data shows that of the 3,961 backlog deaths from Bengaluru Urban, 2,478 had happened in private hospitals.

Of the 19,503 Covid-19 deaths made public this year, 4,734 deaths were backlog deaths, out of which 3,961 were from Bengaluru Urban.

BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta had previously explained to DH that the backlog cases had caused the state government to release the death figures in “bunches”, which had the end result of showing inflated figures of between 320 to 626 deaths per day since May 5.

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Are the death records complete?

Sources said much of the backlog records of the previous months have largely been reconciled. This means the state had suffered 18,198 deaths in the second surge from March 12 to May 31. Out of them, 10,096 fatalities happened in Bengaluru Urban.

May 2021 has emerged as the most devastating month in the ongoing outbreak claiming 6,425 lives in the city and 12,806 lives statewide. However, additional deaths from May may be added soon. On Tuesday, 22 of the 44 Bengaluru deaths announced were from May 29, 30 and 31.