Covid: India records highest daily death toll since pandemic began after Bihar revises its figures

India has reported 6,148 deaths from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, the highest single-day spike since the start of the pandemic, after a state revised its data upon finding deaths that were previously not accounted for.

The country’s total fatalities now stand at 359,676, according to health ministry data.

The eastern Indian state of Bihar on Wednesday updated its official figures, raising the number of Covid deaths there by 3,951 or 72 per cent. The state health department data showed that the total number of fatalities is now 9,429, from less than 5,500 earlier.

It’s not yet clear when all of these deaths happened, but it is believed that most of the 3,951 deaths happened during the second wave of the pandemic, according to The Times of India.

The latest data showed that state capital Patna had the most deaths, accounting for 2,303 of Bihar’s total.

The official number was revised after authorities undertook an audit of the casualties following a court hearing. A court had in May slammed the Bihar government and flagged inconsistencies in the death toll of a district in the state.

State health minister Mangal Pandey told news agency ANI that the government heard from various sources that the actual number of deaths could be higher and directed district magistrates to prepare a report.

He said it took 15 to 20 days for the district magistrates to prepare the report of the cumulative toll, he said, and his government’s aim is now to reach out to the families of those now reclassified as Covid deaths to offer financial help.

The revision has again raised concerns that the coronavirus infections and deaths across India are being significantly undercounted. Health experts have repeatedly flagged concerns including low testing rates in rural areas, where both cases and deaths go unregistered.

Dr Prabhat Jha of the University of Toronto earlier told the Associated Press that people often die at home without medical attention in rural areas, and these deaths are vastly underreported.

And public health researcher Oommen John told The Independent last month that one of the reasons for the discrepancy in numbers is that in some cases, family members might hide the information that a person tested positive for Covid-19 or had symptoms suggestive of the virus because the protocol for getting a certificate for a Covid-related death is very complex.

India’s coronavirus cases have dipped in recent days with the country reporting 94,052 new infections in the 24 hours that ended Thursday morning, down from a peak of daily new cases well above 400,000. The country’s overall caseload now stands at 29.2 million.

Experts speaking to the New York Times last month estimated that in a conservative scenario, the true number of Covid deaths in India could be around 600,000 and the true count of infections about 15 times higher than the official number.

The Indian government had rejected the NYT report, calling it “baseless and outrageous”.