BJP slams BMC's 'Mumbai model'; calls it 'nothing more than window dressing COVID deaths'

AsMumbai continues to remain one of the worst affected cities amid the COVID-19 pandemic, BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya on Saturday slammed the BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation). Taking to his official Twitter account, the BJP's IT Cell head shared BMC's 'Mumbai Model', which shows the number of COVID & non-COVID deaths from March 2020-April 2021 and February 1, 2021- April 30, 2021. "The 'Mumbai Model' is nothing more than window dressing Covid deaths," Amit Malviya added. 

BJP's Amit Malviya slams BMC over Mumbai COVID deaths data

Besides hitting out at the BMC over its Mumbai COVID-19 deaths data, Malviya also attached a letter written by former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. The letter dated May 8, 2021, was addressed to CM Uddhav Thackeray. In the letter, the former Maharashtra Chief Minister had written, "I have brought to your notice from time to time that the efforts are being taken to artificially show that COVID-19 is efficiently controlled in Mumbai."

Alleging that PR agencies and celebrities are being used to plan a narrative amidst this tough time, Fadnavis had said, "You are aware that the WHO for the world and ICMR for India has formulated a guideline for COVID reporting." Stating that every death of a COVID-19 positive person has to be reported as COVID death, he said that only the exception being a death due to accident/ suicide/ murder or in extreme cases like the death of a COVID positive brain dead patient or 4th stage cancer patient which despite the patient being COVID positive is to be registered under column 'death due to other reason'.

The letter addressed to Uddhav Thackeray read, "It is clearly seen that to suppress the CFR or death rate, the BMC is misusing this category to the extent that when the deaths due to other reasons category in Rest of Maharashtra is 0.7 per cent, in Mumbai it is reported 39.4 per cent in this second wave of COVID."

COVID-19 situation in Maharashtra

On Friday, May 14, Maharashtra recorded 42,582 novel coronavirus cases taking the state's COVID-19 tally to 52,69,292. At present, there are 5,33,294 active cases in the state. With 54,535 COVID-19 patients discharged in the day, the number of recovered soared to 46,54,731. 850 deaths were reported on Friday. Out of the total deaths reported in the day, 409 occurred in the last 48 hours, 160 in the last week and the rest from the period before. Until now, a total of 78,857 persons in the state have died owing to COVID-19. 

So far, 3,03,51,356 samples have been tested for the novel coronavirus in labs operational across the state. While 35,02,630 persons are under home quarantine, 28,847 others have been admitted to institutional quarantine centres. The COVID-19 positivity rate, recovery rate and fatality rate in Maharashtra stand at 17.36 per cent, 88.34 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively.

(Image: ANI, PTI)