In a development which puts up a question mark on the reporting system of the health department and its management of Covid-19 in Uttarakhand, the state health department sharply increased the death toll from the disease on Saturday. The death toll which a day earlier was on 829 was revised to 924 on Saturday. The department explained that 89 deaths which had occurred in the past were not reported by many hospitals.

The department said that out of these 89 deaths reported late, 28 were from Kailash hospital, 24 from Mahant Indiresh hospital, 21 from Government Doon Medical College (GDMC) hospital, five from Himalayan hospital, three from district hospital Roorkee and two each from Max  hospital Dehradun, Vinay Vishal Hospital and Jaya Maxwell hospital Haridwar. The department reported the death of six patients on the day.

The Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Uttarakhand state Covid-19 control room, Dr Abhishek Tripathi said that some hospitals are late in providing details of deaths in their hospitals. He warned that action against these hospitals can be taken. However the private hospitals are denying the allegation that death details are being provided late. The director of Kailash hospital, Pawan Sharma told The Pioneer that the hospital is regularly updating the deaths to the health department.

Meanwhile, the tally of Covid-19 patients in Uttarakhand mounted to 57,648 on Saturday with the State health department reporting 606 cases of the disease.

The authorities discharged 665 patients of the disease after their recovery from different hospitals of the State. A total of 50820 patients have so far recovered from the disease. On a positive front the recovery rate from the disease has climbed to 88.16 per cent and the infection rate is 6.69 per cent. The authorities reported 165 patients from Dehradun, 117 from Haridwar, 94 from Nainital, 48 from Pauri, 27 from Almora, 73 from Chamoli, 41 from Pauri, 26 from Rudraprayag, 31 from Uttarkashi, 27 from Almora and 22 from Tehri Garhwal.

The State now has 5,538 active patients of the disease. Dehradun district with 1,711 active cases is at top of table while Haridwar with 775 active cases is on second spot. Nainital has 563, Pauri 422, Udham Singh Nagar 364, Uttarkashi 322, Tehri 274, Rudraprayag 221, Chamoli 206, Champawat 195, Pithoragarh 194 and Almora 182 active cases of the disease. With 109 active cases of Covid-19, Bageshwar is at the bottom of the table of active cases in Uttarakhand.