390 people have died of COVID-19 in Thane in 17 days: Former BJP MP Kirit Somaiya

A civic worker screens a child for COVID-19 in Thane. File pic

Senior BJP leader and former MP Kirit Somaiya on Sunday accused the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) and the Vasai Virar City Municipal Corporation (VVCMC) of hiding data of COVID-19-related deaths. Somaiya claims to have procured data from crematoriums in Thane.

Kirit Somaiya, BJP leader

The data states that 390 people died of COVID between April 1 and 17 in TMC's jurisdiction. TMC's data, however, claims that 97 such deaths have occurred.

"I visited the smashan bhumi in Thane and managed to get the data. In the past few days, around 35 bodies are being cremated in Thane daily. The TMC is lying in its official release that shows eight-nine deaths daily," Somaiya said.

According to Somaiya's data, in January this year, 33 people who died of COVID were cremated in Thane, 24 in February, 96 in March and 390 in April till 17. "The government has instructed officials to not give exact data of deaths. The health system has collapsed in Maharashtra, which is why the government is lying about COVID deaths," Somaiya said.

Somaiya has filed a petition before the Maharashtra Human Rights Commission, accusing the state health secretary, TMC, VVCMC and two private hospitals of hiding data on deaths. "The VVCMC commissioner went on record that between April 1 and 14, 23 people died of COVID. We brought to his notice that as per our information and municipal records, 201 patients have died from April 1-14 in his area," Somaiya said.

"The TMC also claims that from April 1-13, there have been 57 COVID-deaths, but data from three crematoriums under TMC area show 309 last rites of COVID deceased," Somaiya said.

According to data shared by Thane Mayor Dr. Naresh Mhaske, on April 16 and 17, 14 people died of COVID. While Somaiya's documents claim that 69 people died in the same period. According to TMC's official data, there are 15,862 active COVID cases, the recovery rate is 84 per cent, and 87,380 patients have recovered so far. In the past year, around 1,484 COVID-related deaths took place, as per the civic body.

Mhaske told mid-day, "One should read the guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) about COVID-19 deaths and suspected deaths before doing politics on the pandemic. Documents shared by Somaiya are about suspected COVID deaths, where people had symptoms similar to COVID but died before getting their RT-PCR report or without tests. What would we get by hiding data? Maharashtra is the only state which has been transparent about COVID-19 data. These people are indulging in petty politics."

"Some patients died during treatment but before test reports came, some died at home with symptoms but without a test. Considering the situation, we cannot hold bodies while waiting for the report. Which is why they were cremated as suspected COVID cases," a TMC spokesperson said.

97
No. of deaths as per TMC data from April 1-17