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

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 COVID19related deaths Somaiya claims to have procured data from crematoriums in ThaneKirit Somaiya BJP leaderThe data states that 390 people died of COVID between April 1 and 17 in TMCrsquos jurisdiction TMCrsquos data however claims that 97 such deaths have occurredldquoI 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 eightnine deaths dailyrdquo Somaiya saidAccording to Somaiyarsquos 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 ldquoThe 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 deathsrdquo Somaiya saidSomaiya 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 ldquoThe 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 114 in his areardquo Somaiya saidldquoThe TMC also claims that from April 113 there have been 57 COVIDdeaths but data from three crematoriums under TMC area show 309 last rites of COVID deceasedrdquo Somaiya saidAccording to data shared by Thane Mayor Dr Naresh Mhaske on April 16 and 17 14 people died of COVID While Somaiyarsquos documents claim that 69 people died in the same period According to TMCrsquos official data there are 15862 active COVID cases the recovery rate is 84 per cent and 87380 patients have recovered so far In the past year around 1484 COVIDrelated deaths took place as per the civic bodyMhaske told midday ldquoOne should read the guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research ICMR about COVID19 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 RTPCR report or without tests What would we get by hiding data Maharashtra is the only state which has been transparent about COVID19 data These people are indulging in petty politicsrdquoldquoSome 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 casesrdquo a TMC spokesperson said97No of deaths as per TMC data from April 117