Facing criticism for “under-reporting” COVID-19 deaths, the Delhi Government on Sunday handed out a standard operating procedure (SOP) for hospitals and other health facilities in the city with regards to reporting fatalities due to coronavirus.

Delhi Chief Secretary, Vijay Dev issued an order along with the SOP according to which all COVID-19 hospitals and other facilities will have to e-mail a ‘death report’ to the government by 5 pm every day.Mr. Dev also warned the hospitals of strict action if any delay in reporting of fatalities is detected.

Officials from the 10 hospitals treating COVID-19 patients have said that the number of people who died due to the virus is more than what the Delhi government’s bulletin reports.

“Every COVID-19 hospital and other health facilities will appoint nodal officers who will ensure timely communication of deaths,” Dev said in the order.
In case of any delay in reporting deaths, the medical superintendent, medical director, or nodal officer of ‘defaulter hospital’ will have to submit a written explanation, the official order said.

Congress leader Ajay Maken sought more clarity from Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday, while Ex Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari urged the chief minister to “tell the truth” about COVID-19 deaths in the city, saying people are entitled to know about the severity of the outbreak.

The Delhi government “strongly denied this allegation”. “This is completely false and politically motivated. There is an audit committee of doctors that investigates every death incident reported by COVID hospitals and ensures that every death is reported. There is no interference of any kind in the work of this committee,” it said.

As per Delhi government announcement made today morning, a total 1 thousand 298 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus have been reported in Delhi during the last twenty four hours taking the total number of cases to 22 thousand 132.Delhi government has confirmed that 9 thousand 243 people affected with corona virus in the national capital have been cured so far and the recovery rate has reached 41.76 per cent. In the last 24 hours, 497 patients have recovered and 33 deaths have been reported in the Delhi taking the toll to 556.

On Tuesday, India crossed 2 lakh cases of coronavirus, around 15 days after it crossed the one lakh mark. For the past three days, the country has been reporting more than 8,000 infections per day.India now stands as the seventh-worst hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic after the US, Brazil, Russia, the UK, Spain and Italy, according to the WHO's COVID-19 tracker.

Meanwhile, during the last twenty four hours, 4 thousand 776 people have recovered and 8 thousand 909 fresh cases of Covid-19 have been reported taking the total number of cases to 2 lakh 7 thousand 615. The Health Ministry said, 217 deaths have been registered in last 24 hours taking the nationwide death toll to 5 thousand 815. Maharashtra remains the nation's coronavirus hotspot with more than 70,000 cases. The country's recovery rate, i.e. the number of patients who have successfully recovered from the illness – is now at 48.31 per cent this morning. 1,00,303 people have recovered, the Health Ministry reported.