MUMBAI: The city’s Covid-19 death toll could climb substantially as the state government has asked the BMC to revisit hundreds of deaths that may not have been added to the pandemic toll. Multiple sources confirmed to TOI that Covid-19 mortality numbers in the city could jump by 400-500 though civic authorities were tight-lipped about the exercise. Mumbai’s toll touched 2,250 on Monday.
Principal health secretary Dr Pradeep Vyas issued a notice on June 11 to the civic body stating all municipal corporations and districts had undertaken a data reconciliation exercise. The letter stated state chief secretary Ajoy Mehta had directed that data cleaning be completed by June 15. The letter ended with a caution that “any data mismatch brought to notice subsequently would be viewed very seriously.” Sources told TOI the data cleaning exercise was prompted by concerns that many Covid-19 deaths in Mumbai were not being added to the toll.
Speaking to TOI, Ajoy Mehta said the decision to get the data reconciled was made after it was noticed there was discrepancy in many cases.
BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis alleged on Monday that the BMC has not accounted f