Centre asks Bihar to share details on reconciled data of 3971 new deaths due to COVID-19

NEW DELHI: The Union government has asked Bihar to share the date and district wise details of the COVID-19 deaths, two days after it reconciled data and reported 3,971 new deaths within a day due to the infection disease.

The Centre also said that states have been advised repeatedly through multiple mediums and through deployment of Central teams for recording of deaths in accordance with the laid down guidelines.

The government also emphasised that as early as May last year, to avoid inconsistency or confusion in the number of deaths being reported, ICMR had issued "Guidance for appropriate recording of COVID-19 related deaths in India" for correct recording of all deaths by states as per ICD-10 codes recommended by WHO for mortality coding.

The Union Health Ministry has regularly emphasized the need for a robust reporting mechanism for monitoring district wise cases and deaths on a daily basis, the government said in a statement. It clarified that while the government reported a total of 6148 COVID-19 deaths on June 10, this spike in deaths was on account of 3971 deaths reported by Bihar due to data reconciliation. 

"In the instant case, the Union government has written to the state of Bihar to provide a detailed date and district wise break-up of the reconciled number of deaths to the Union health ministry," the statement added.