Pune: Mayor alleges COVID-19 death toll is going unaccounted, District collector orders an inquiry  

Shikha Chaurasia

Pune, 2 August 2020: When Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray visited the city on Thursday to hold a meeting with the officials to monitor the COVID-19 situation, Mayor Murlidhar Mohol raised the issue of hundreds of suspected COVID-19 deaths going unaccounted for in the city.

The District Collector Naval Kishore Ram has issued an inquiry in this matter and has told the Sassoon General Hospital (SGH) to submit a report in the next few days. The Mayor alleged that at least 400 deaths have been reported in a month which are suspected to be due to the Coronavirus but there is no account for them as such.

“I raised the issue of 400-500 deaths taking place in the city due to the virus which have not been accounted in the city’s death toll. The deceased patients were brought to the hospital either in a serious condition and died before testing or they were brought dead”, Mohol said.

He also said that hospitals cannot conduct COVID-19 tests in such patients but they can take X-rays which will show whether the patient had the infection or not. This is why I have demanded an inquiry in this matter and request the administration to take the necessary steps to prevent such unfortunate deaths.”

The probe has been ordered by the District Collector and he said that he has visited Sassoon General Hospital multiple times and verified their records too. He thinks that it is not possible that a high death toll, like 400-500 is not being accounted for.

He added further, “Sassoon hospital has reported that in the time span of 12 days, only 10 such deaths have occurred. In order to confirm the situation, I have written a letter to the management of the hospital to make a report and submit it in a few days.”