<p>Doubts have arisen over the COVID-19 data released by Delhi government after a mis-match has been observed over the number of deaths reported by hospitals and those reflected in the official health bulletins.<br /><br />While the health bulletin issued by Delhi government pegged the deaths at 68 and cases at 6542 with 224 fresh cases on Saturday, those reported to the administration from hospitals is at least 124. No deaths were reported during the day.<br /><br />The Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, run by the central government, said it has reported 52 cases of death to the Delhi government but only 26 are reflected in the latest health bulletin.<br /><br />Similarly, authorities in Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital under Delhi government has reported 55 deaths but the official toll has just five from the hospital.<br /><br />In AIIMS' Delhi and Jhajjar campuses where 14 deaths have been reported, the bulletin acknowledges only two while none of the three deaths from Lady Hardinge Hospital finds a place in the official data.<br /><br />Hospital officials in RML and LNJP said they had highlighted the mis-match several times to the government but there has been no response.<br /><br />Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain defended the government and rubbished claims of fudging data while responding to Opposition allegations that the government was under-reporting cases and deaths.</p>.<p><br />He said if the government wanted to hide anything, it would not have released the correct data on Thursday when the capital reported 448 cases, which is the highest number of cases for a single day.<br /><br />A Delhi government spokesperson strongly denied any wrongdoing and said the allegations are "completely false and politically motivated". Each and every death reported by hospitals have to be vetted by a death audit committee comprising senior doctors and only then it is reflected in the health bulletin and there is no interference of any kind in its work, the spokesperson said.<br /><br />Defending the government, an official cited an example where details of a person who died on May 1 was reflected only on May 7. The committee was set up on April 20 with a mandate to audit daily each and every death in private and government hospitals before releasing the data.<br /><br />It was not only the number of cases in which there was mis-match with some hospitals saying the real picture on number of cases were also not reflected.<br /><br />Questions are also raised over the Delhi government abruptly stopping to provide elaborate details on testing on April 28. However, it later restarted providing details after a week but only cumulative figures are given. The health bulletins these days do not reflect the results of samples pending.<br /><br />According to health bulletin of Saturday, Delhi government has tested 84,226 samples as on 12 AM of May 8, which is an increase of 2,859 from the previous figure.<br /><br />Recently, Delhi High Court had directed the Arvind Kejriwal government to update its website regularly to reflect the correct number of Covid-19 tests it conducted as well as the number of pending samples. </p>
<p>Doubts have arisen over the COVID-19 data released by Delhi government after a mis-match has been observed over the number of deaths reported by hospitals and those reflected in the official health bulletins.<br /><br />While the health bulletin issued by Delhi government pegged the deaths at 68 and cases at 6542 with 224 fresh cases on Saturday, those reported to the administration from hospitals is at least 124. No deaths were reported during the day.<br /><br />The Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, run by the central government, said it has reported 52 cases of death to the Delhi government but only 26 are reflected in the latest health bulletin.<br /><br />Similarly, authorities in Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital under Delhi government has reported 55 deaths but the official toll has just five from the hospital.<br /><br />In AIIMS' Delhi and Jhajjar campuses where 14 deaths have been reported, the bulletin acknowledges only two while none of the three deaths from Lady Hardinge Hospital finds a place in the official data.<br /><br />Hospital officials in RML and LNJP said they had highlighted the mis-match several times to the government but there has been no response.<br /><br />Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain defended the government and rubbished claims of fudging data while responding to Opposition allegations that the government was under-reporting cases and deaths.</p>.<p><br />He said if the government wanted to hide anything, it would not have released the correct data on Thursday when the capital reported 448 cases, which is the highest number of cases for a single day.<br /><br />A Delhi government spokesperson strongly denied any wrongdoing and said the allegations are "completely false and politically motivated". Each and every death reported by hospitals have to be vetted by a death audit committee comprising senior doctors and only then it is reflected in the health bulletin and there is no interference of any kind in its work, the spokesperson said.<br /><br />Defending the government, an official cited an example where details of a person who died on May 1 was reflected only on May 7. The committee was set up on April 20 with a mandate to audit daily each and every death in private and government hospitals before releasing the data.<br /><br />It was not only the number of cases in which there was mis-match with some hospitals saying the real picture on number of cases were also not reflected.<br /><br />Questions are also raised over the Delhi government abruptly stopping to provide elaborate details on testing on April 28. However, it later restarted providing details after a week but only cumulative figures are given. The health bulletins these days do not reflect the results of samples pending.<br /><br />According to health bulletin of Saturday, Delhi government has tested 84,226 samples as on 12 AM of May 8, which is an increase of 2,859 from the previous figure.<br /><br />Recently, Delhi High Court had directed the Arvind Kejriwal government to update its website regularly to reflect the correct number of Covid-19 tests it conducted as well as the number of pending samples. </p>
