In 2 months, three-time rise in Sonepat fatalities

Mukesh Tandon
Tribune News Service
Sonepat, June 19

The district recorded 3,960 deaths in April and May this year — three times the number of fatalities in the corresponding period last year. The district had reported 1,319 deaths in the corresponding period last year.

The data of the Health Department shows that the Covid is not the major cause of the deaths. Ever since the first case of Covid was detected in the district last year, 249 persons have lost their lives to the deadly virus. Of them, more than half — 154 to be precise — died in April and May this year.

Dr Darshan Lal Malhotra, general secretary of the Shiv Mukti Dham, Sector 15, said: “In mid-April, there was an influx of bodies at the cremation ground. In all, 565 bodies — 228 in April and 237 in May — were cremated.”

The discrepancy in the number of deaths is more glaring when the official data is compared. In all, 3,960 persons died in the last two months, but the department says only 154 deaths were linked to Covid — a difference of 3,806. This raises a question over the reporting of Covid casualties.

Sources say the actual number of Covid deaths is more than the official figure.

Civil Surgeon Dr Jaswant Singh Punia, however, refuted this. “Every single Covid death in the district has been reported. The data from the cremation ground is different from that of the government because patients from Delhi and Uttar Pradesh who died during treatment in Sonepat hospitals were cremated here.” He further said there were several causes of death and Covid alone could not be blamed for the surge in deaths in the past two months.