Chandigarh, Dec 9 (IANS): The number of Covid-19 deaths among Chandigarh residents has increased to 1,076 as per the reconciled data from the existing 820, the administration said on Thursday.

Earlier, the administration had recorded 820 deaths. It said the data of the 256 more deaths is being added on the portal of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Also the detail of these 256 deaths is being shared with the State Disaster Management Authority to consider a total of 1,076 cases for release of ex-gratia of Rs 50,000 to the next of kin of the deceased in accordance with the guidelines of the government of India.

The administration said in a statement that efforts are being made to further reconcile 103 deaths by getting documents and connecting with the respective families.

As per the existing instructions, the death occurring within 30 days from the date of testing or from the date of being clinically determined as Covid-19 case is treated as a death due to the coronavirus, even if death takes place outside the hospital or in-patient facility.

However, a Covid-19 case, while admitted to the hospital or in-patient facility, and who continued as the same admission beyond 30 days, and died subsequently will also be treated as Covid-19 death.

The instructions say deaths occurring due to poisoning, suicide, homicide and accident are not considered as Covid-19 deaths even if the disease is an accompanying condition.

In the past, an exercise was undertaken by the Health Department to reconcile the figure of Covid-19 deaths with the record maintained at the cremation ground.

During the process of reconciliation, it was observed that there was a mismatch of 359 deaths.

On further investigation from records of hospitals and details or documents collected from the family members of the deceased persons it was observed that 256 deaths were recorded at the cremation ground were the deaths due to Covid-19 in accordance with the existing guidelines.