Over 630 people who died from COVID-19 in Serbia is potentially the highest cover-up of the number of deaths in the southern city of Nis, according to data in the official information system, while last week, the number of newly infected was between 300-400, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) reported on Monday.
BIRN had access to the COVID-19 informative system data, which showed that between March 19 and June 1, 632 patients died, what was 388 more than 244 cases officially published for that period.
BIRN also reported that there were between 300 and 400 new cases daily, far more than officially published data which put that number to up to 97 during the last week.
Those data are recorded in ‘Report for the Government’ table made based on the information system. The table contains three data – the number of people tested in the last 24 hours and those positive, the number of dead approved by the Health Ministry and the bed occupancy in hospitals.
The largest difference in the number of deaths was in the Nis Clinical Centre for which the official data said had been 77. In contrast, those BIRN had access to, showed that 243 patients who died and being tested positive on the coronavirus were 243, or the difference of 166 in the number of dead people.
In the Belgrade ‘Dragisa Misiovic’ Clinical Centre, the number of deaths was “reduced” for 55 people (officially, 39 fatalities while in the information system the figure was 88).
In other Belgrade Clinical Center, Zvezdara, officially had 14 dead patients, while the system recorded 59. Other hospitals had smaller differences between the published and real numbers.
The data showed that the number of fatalities had been on the rise from the end of March and reached a peak by mid-April, remaining stable by the end of the month.
The first death case was registered on March 19. In mid-April, 20 people, marked as positive on the new virus in the information system, died daily.
On April 12, 23 people died, while the official data was six. The next day, the anti-coronavirus Crisis Team said that five people died, like on April 15, although the system recorded 20 fatalities.
By the beginning of May, the number of dead patients was below ten, while on May 31, the system showed one fatality.
BIRN has attempted several times to contact the Health Ministry, Crisis Team and Serbia’s Institute for Public Health to find out what caused such huge differences in the official and the information system data, and who decided what numbers should be published, but no one answered the calls.