Maharashtra: Total Covid deaths in state climb to 1.47 lakh as govt revises toll

Till March 24, the state had reported 1,43,772 Covid deaths and 4,005 ‘deaths due to other reasons’. However, on March 25, the state merged the two, taking the total count to 1,47,779. The public health department took the decision following a Supreme Court order that directed to provide an ex-gratia amount of Rs 50,000 to the families if the patients had died within 30 days of their diagnosis of Covid.

Dr Pradeep Vyas, additional chief secretary, said in the beginning of the pandemic, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had directed the states that all the deaths caused due to accident, suicide, poisoning and myocardial infarction in patients infected with Covid-19 to be reported as non-Covid deaths. “Thus, we had two columns in the daily bulletin — one for Covid-19 deaths and another for non-Covid deaths. After the decision of the honourable Supreme Court, wherein an ex-gratia amount of Rs 50,000 is to be paid in case of death even after Covid negative status but within 30 days of diagnosis, this distinction by ICMR became infructuous. So we merged the two columns in daily bulletin to one column,” he said.

Meanwhile, the health ministry said that the Covid-19 task force will take a final call on providing further relaxations. “As of now, we will not waive the rule of wearing masks while stepping out. The Covid-19 cases have dropped but it is still there. So we have to be more careful. Also, the task force hasn’t given any clear directive on any relaxation,” said Rajesh Tope, health minister.