PANJIM: Neither 54 nor 40, but 27 patients succumbed to COVID-19 on Saturday, the day that also reported a sharp decline in daily new cases and a rise in recoveries.
The mortality bulletin issued by the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) declaring 54 deaths caused panic in the State. However, a detailed analysis of the bulletin revealed that only 27 people died in the last 24 hours, while the rest were unreported deaths, of earlier dates, released on Saturday.
The list mentioned 18 deaths that took place on April 30, in addition to the 22 mortalities for that day, as reported earlier. Similarly, on April 29, that had earlier seen 36 deaths, had four new casualties, which went unreported and were declared on Saturday.
Also, one death each was added to the count of April 28 (24 deaths), April 27 (31), April 26 (38) and April 24 (17). With these 54 cases, the mortality count touched 1,222 mark.
After reporting over 3000-odd new cases for three consecutive days, the tally of new infections saw a sharp decline with 2303 cases in the last 24 hours.
The positivity rate, which had crossed the 50 per cent mark, declined and came down to 39 per cent. As on Saturday, the total active cases stood at 23,884.
The day also saw, 1310 patients recovering and being discharged. The recovered patients as on date are 68,249.
