On Sunday, Delhi recorded its highest single-day surge with 1,295 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total number of cases to 19,844, whereas the death toll has reached 473. On Saturday, the total number of cases reported were 1,163.

In its daily bulletin, Delhi government, said the collective death count referred to the fatalities stated that the primary cause of death was COVID-19 mentioned on the case sheets that were received from the hospitals.

A senior official said that a total of 57 deaths were declared on 30th May but these deaths had taken place throughout May, and not on a single day. Also, on Saturday, the total number of coronavirus cases were at 18,549 with 416 deaths.

Delhi government has issued notices of show-cause to AIIMS, RML, Lok Nayak and Safdarjung hospitals demanding explanations for the delay in reporting death cases. Lok Nayak Hospital is a dedicated COVID-19 facility that is run by the state government, while the other three hospitals are under the central government.

The health department said in a statement that show-cause notices are issued to AIIMS, RML Hospital LNJP Hospital, and Safdarjung Hospital for the explanation for delay in reporting death cases and for violating the directions issued by the Delhi health department, along with by DDMA under the Disaster Management Act.

Memoranda are also issued to Baba Saheb Ambedkar, Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality and GTB hospitals for "delay in reporting death cases and violating directions" that are issued by the health and other authorities.

The statement further said an advisory has been issued to Lok Nayak Hospital "to be careful in the future" and follow the instructed orders and guidelines issued by the department with the purpose of "no anomaly" to be reported in death figures by the government.

Delhi government issued a standard operating procedure for hospitals and other health services on reporting death toll due to the coronavirus infection, after facing criticism regarding "under-reporting" COVID-19 deaths. Also, it issued orders of added guidelines for better management of bodies of COVID-19 patients or suspects at the mortuaries at several state-run hospitals.

Source: ET Healthworld