Confusion over second Delhi fatality, govt revises coronavirus death toll to 9

The Union health ministry website revised India’s Covid-19 death toll to nine on Wednesday as confusion prevailed over a patient who succumbed in Delhi a day ago.

On Tuesday, the website reported that a second person died due to the fast-spreading disease in the national capital, prompting Delhi’s Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) unit to frantically call its officials and the health ministry to find out who the casualty was. The report of this death took India’s toll to 10.

On Wednesday, the confusion persisted, with the health ministry website saying that the person had tested negative, but Delhi IDSP saying the reports were not available yet.

While officials of the Delhi health department said they did not inform the Centre about the a second death, the Union health ministry pointed out it gets information from on-ground workers and hospitals (effectively, the Delhi health department).

Authorities later figured out that a 60-year-old man with Covid-19-like symptoms – fever and cough – who died in Rajiv Gandhi Superspeciality hospital in Tahirpur.

“The man came to us with arrhythmias and needed an angioplasty. However, he had symptoms of mild fever and cough. When the doctor took a history, they came to know that one of his family members had just returned from Saudi Arabia. Hence, we sent his samples. But, before the test results could come, he died of complications on Tuesday in the hospital,” said BL Sherwal, director, Rajiv Gandhi Superspeciality hospital, an autonomous hospital under the Delhi government.

The hospital has an isolation facility for Covid-19 patients where currently 16 suspected and five positive cases are admitted.