New Delhi Covid-19 death cases reported late, inclusion makes figures spike

Indian capital Delhi today recorded a sharp rise in the number of coronavirus deaths due to the inclusion of fatalities that were "reported late", our New Delhi correspondent reports quoting officials.

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the Covid-19 death count in the city-state registered a rise by 82 in the last 24 hours, due to the inclusion of 69 deaths that were "reported late."

He said 13 deaths occurred on Friday while the remaining 69 took place in the last 34 days and were allegedly reported late.

The total deaths due to Covid-19 in Delhi has mounted to 398 so far, Jain said.

There had been allegations that Covid-19 deaths were in Delhi being under-reported.

Sisodia said there was no need to panic since Delhi's rate of recovery from the virus infection was around 50 percent.

He asked people not to visit hospitals unless there are symptoms of virus infection and said 80-90 percent recovery was registered in cases where patients were home quarantined.

Delhi also moved into the third spot across India in terms of the number of coronavirus positive cases, with 1,106 fresh cases reported in the last 24 hours, pushing the total tally to over 17,000.

According to the Indian Health Ministry data updated in the morning, the highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 59,546, followed by Tamil Nadu at 19,372.