Screen Grab from a local TV9 shows the visuals of Ambulances queued with dead bodies outside crematorium in Bengaluru on Wednesday,
Culprits are private hospitals which are not providing real-time data to state Health Department
BENGALURU:
The phenomenon of ‘staggered’ Covid deaths reported in Bengaluru has led to all-round confusion and panic among citizens, and the major culprits are the city’s private hospitals which have taken their obligation to update the Health Department in real time with little seriousness. According to the state Health Department’s bulletin, 118 deaths were reported over the last three days, but the glaring contradiction is that none of these deaths occurred on the reporting day mentioned in the bulletin.
In fact, the Health Department had issued clear-cut standard procedures to be followed by private hospitals in the matter of updating the Department on Covid deaths. But their laxity in this regard is evident from the fact that even week-old deaths are being reflected in any particular day’s Health Department bulletin released to the media.
Take, for instance, the bulletin of Monday, April 12, which showed 40 deaths. But not a single one of these actually occurred on April 12 as all 40 deaths happened between April 1 and April 11.
Again, the April 13 bulletin showed 55 deaths in Bengaluru, of which not a single one occurred on April 13 itself. Similarly, the April 14 bulletin recorded 23 deaths in Bengaluru, of which none happened on the day itself.
‘Bad name to govt’
“Most of the deaths have been reported in private hospitals. The hospitals should have updated the state Health Department in real time. Such exaggerated figures will create panic among Bengalureans. People will start thinking that more people are dying in hospitals as they are not getting proper treatment. This will also create a bad name for the state government. It is high time that the government pulls up private hospitals and instructs them to share real-time death data with the government so as to avoid panic,” said an expert who is closely monitoring the Covid-19 situation in Bengaluru.
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