The jugglery of numbers pertaining to COVID-19 deaths in Anantapur district has been causing panic among people for the past three days.
The officials said that 25 deaths were reported in three days alone. However, all of them did not take place on those specific days. The count represented the deaths reported on different dates from the March-end till now. However, the cumulative deaths in the district stands at 52 now.
“The daily status report put the number at 30 and above, while the State bulletin showed it only seven or nine. The figure has been corrected now, by adding all the earlier deaths after a committee audited all the cases since March 2020,” said the officials.
The audit panel comprised a forensic expert, a pathologist, a physician, a microbiologist, and in specific cases, gynaecologists, cardiologists, and surgeons ascertained the actual cause of deaths.
Infection count
Meanwhile, 174 new positive cases were reported from the district, taking the patients’ tally to 3,987. Of them, 2,404 people have been discharged. As many as 1,531 patients are undergoing treatment in four hospitals and five COVID Care Centres.
The district administration has proposed nodal COVID care centres at Tadipatri, Hindupur and on the Ayush Hospital premises at Guntakal. Collector Gandham Chandrudu has asked the officials to ensure that at least 3,000 samples are tested daily so that the vulnerable cases could be traced.
