The Health Minister said that senior state officials had already “re-verified” the deaths in the state due to Covid and now, upon instructions from Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Covid deaths in all the districts will be certified, based on a given sample size, within 15 days.
Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma on Thursday said that the state recorded a 5.31 per cent increase in deaths so far in 2021, compared to 2020, but that it is on par with the increase of 5.94 per cent increase registered between 2019 and 2020.
Responding to allegations that the state was under-reporting deaths due to Covid-19, Sharma said that between January 1, 2020 and May 25, 2020, as many as 1,66,392 lakh deaths were recorded in the state. For the same period in 2021, 1,75,244 deaths were recorded. This translates into an increase of 5.32 per cent, Sharma said.
Sharma, however, drew a parallel with the increase in deaths in 2020 compared to the previous year. “A total of 3,96,799 deaths were registered in 2019. This increased to 4,20,403 deaths in 2020, or an increase of 5.94 per cent,” he said, adding, “therefore, the increase in deaths in 2021 is on par with the increase in 2020.”
Sharma said that between March 2020 and March 2021, 2,818 persons had died due to Covid, while total deaths recorded were 4,39,996. “So this means that percentage of deaths due to Covid was 0.64 per cent. And between April 2021 and May 2021, 5,093 persons have died due to Covid, which is 6.12 per cent of 83,188 deaths,” he said.
The Health Minister said that senior state officials had already “re-verified” the deaths in the state due to Covid and now, upon instructions from Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Covid deaths in all the districts will be certified, based on a given sample size, within 15 days.
Three teams have been constituted with two members each. Their task would be to visit the districts and conduct a ‘Death Audit’, where they will collect data for total deaths and deaths due to Covid, and make a comparative assessment. These teams will also share their suggestions on reducing Covid cases and Covid deaths in the districts.
By Thursday evening, Rajasthan had recorded a total of 9.3 lakh positive cases in the state ever since the pandemic began last year. Of these, 71,099 cases are still active while 8,103 persons have died due to Covid. The state has conducted over 1.04 crore Covid tests since last year.
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