Maharashtra's coronavirus death toll crosses 5,000

In a shocking and serious development, the COVID-19 death toll in Maharashtra jumped by 1,328 after the government concluded a comprehensive updation and reconciliation exercise on Tuesday.

With this, the state's toll has shot up from 4,128 to staggering 5,000 plus to touch 5,456 deaths.

While 862 deaths were added in Mumbai's toll, rest 466 was from across the state.

The figures have accumulated for a three-month period for various reasons including delay in results for labs.

On Monday, the toll stood at 4,128 and positive cases at 56,049 - and the updated figure does not include fresh deaths that are reported on Tuesday.

The development comes a day ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's video-conference with Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, leader of opposition Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP has alleged that the government is trying to hide and suppress death toll.

The development comes as a major embarrassment to the Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government.

"The jump in figures is because of the reconciliation process," chief secretary Ajoy Mehta said.

Last Saturday, principal secretary (health) Dr Pradeep Vyas had ordered all district collectors and municipal commissioners to update records by Monday.

"It is my sincere request to the State Government that please don’t ignore this entire episode of criminal negligence in the name of reconciliation of numbers.These figures were suppressed for last 3months. We demand strict action against all those who are responsible for this," charged Fadnavis, a former chief minister.

In a letter to Thackeray, Fadnavis has asked for a probe.

According to Fadnavis, there has been gross violation of ICMR and WHO guidelines. "It is a cover up," said Fadnavis.

"Before announcing COVID-19 related deaths, it is examined by the Death Audit Committee formed by the BMC. We have noticed that there are at least 451 recent deaths that were not declared as COVID-19 deaths. As per the ICMR guidelines, these were COVID-19 deaths but the Death Audit Committee showed these as non-COVID-19 deaths," he said.

Fadnavis, a former chief minister, also alleged that here were 500 COVID-19 deaths that were not reported to the Death Audit Committee. "

So there are around 950 COVID-19 deaths that are suppressed. This is serious and criminal in nature," he said.

"The State Government itself has directed to set up Death Audit Committee at every district & Municipal Corporation level.

When there are clear guidelines by @WHO & @ICMRDELHI on identifying #COVID_19 & non-Covid cases,is this committee made to prevent deaths or to hide numbers?," Fadnavis tweeted.

According to Mehta, according to ICD-19 guidelines based on recommendations form WHO, ICMR and National Centre for Disease Control, a reconcilation exercise is a must and accordingly it was carried out.