Maharashtra not hiding COVID-19 deaths, says minister Tope

In a review meeting on the COVID-19 situation in Pune, Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Friday said the state government was not hiding COVID-19 deaths. It happens due to reconciliation of past deaths.

Pune: Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Friday said the state government was not hiding COVID-19 deaths and rise and drop in figures on some days were due to reconciliation of case numbers.

Tope was in Pune to attend a review meeting on the COVID-19 situation in the region.

"We are not hiding any deaths. Sometimes, more death cases are reported on a particular day. It happens due to reconciliation of past deaths. There is no question of hiding death cases," he told reporters when queried about allegations from opposition parties on this count.

Due to the reconciliation in death cases, the numbers may differ here and there, but the intention of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government is very clear as it believes in principles of honesty and transparency, Tope said.

Answering a query on whether testing for the infection in Pune was less, Tope said. "In Mumbai, 22,000 tests are done per million (people). In Pune, 15,000 tests are done per million. So it is inappropriate to say tests in Pune are less. We are testing as per ICMR guidelines."

Tope said the number of cases in the state was high because of higher number of tests being carried out, while in some states this was not the case and, therefore, they had lesser number of cases.

Senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis had recently said the number of tests being carried out in Pune was less than what was required. PTI