India / Bihar's COVID-19 deaths reach 12,000 after data revised again

Patna: Bihar has once again revised its Covid-19 death figures, the second time in almost six months, taking the toll to 12,089.

Till December 2, the Covid death figures in the state stood at 9,664. However, as per the figures uploaded by the health department on December 3 late night, the deaths in Bihar increased by 2425.

The change in figures was effected on the basis of compensation claims cleared across the state, officials of the health department said.

The last audit of the Covid-19 death toll was done on June 9 last year, which added 9,375 more deaths, an increase of 72.8% over the 5,424 deaths attributed to the virus in the state till then. The change in the total number of fatalities done after a 20-day exercise to audit Covid deaths on directions of the Patna high court that spotted discrepancies in figures cited by different agencies in one district.

“These deaths had remained unaccounted earlier. Applications for seeking a compensation of ₹4 lakh being provided by the Bihar government had been lying for a long time in districts. After verification of papers, the figures have been uploaded on the website,” said Bihar’s health minister Mangal Pandey.

“There is nothing to hide. Chief minister Nitish Kumar had announced to provide compensation of ₹4 lakh to each family who died of Covid on the production of proper papers. These additional death figures are nothing but only those whose papers were found correct,” he said.

Of the 2425 deaths, the maximum increase is from Patna (445), followed by Vaishali (210), Katihar (174), Gopalganj (162) and Jehananbad (135).

The increase reflects deaths reported at private hospitals, in transit to health facilities, under home isolation and those dying of post-Covid complications after they tested negative, said a health department official, wishing not to be quoted.

In August, Hindustan Times had reported that there were at least 251,000 excess deaths registered under the Civil Registration System (CRS) in Bihar since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak (from March 2020 to May 2021), which is 48.6 times the official number of confirmed coronavirus deaths (5,163) in the state in the same period.