Capt orders detailed audit of Covid-19 deaths

Giving this update to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi during a video conference, the CM said the state government was being guided by a group of experts in handling the Covid-19 crisis

CHANDIGARH: Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday said he had ordered a detailed audit of every Covid-19 death by experts to understand and check the high mortality rate in the state.

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Giving this update to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi during a video conference, the CM said the state government was being guided by a group of experts in handling the Covid-19 crisis. The group comprises Dr KK Talwar, former director of the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh; Dr Raj Bahadur, vice-chancellor of the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot; Dr Rajesh Kumar, a former head of the School of Public Health at PGIMER; besides experts from John Hopkins University.

Amarinder said the mortality numbers in the state were high largely due to co-morbidity and lack of health-seeking behaviour (patients come late to hospital). “Despite the high mortality rate of 6.2%, the rate of growth of Covid-19 in Punjab is lower than India, with the cases doubling in 16 days against the national average of nine days,” he said.

The CM cited the example of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar as a case of effective containment. In the district, which was one of the first hotspots in the country, all 18 treated cases, besides the initial death of granthi Baldev Singh, had recovered and no case had been reported since March 26, he informed the party leadership.

He also said that Punjab had to be compared with Kerala and Gujarat, which were also states with high NRI population. The state was doing significantly better than Gujarat, and in terms of cases per million population, even lower than Kerala (9/million in Punjab vs 12/million in Kerala), he pointed out.

ASKS STATES TO SEEK BAILOUT PACKAGE

After suggesting a three-pronged strategy to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bail out states from the COVID crisis, Amarinder has now urged his counterparts in all the states to pursue the matter with the Centre.

Amarinder has written to the chief ministers of all the states to also approach the Prime Minister, urging him to consider the strategy he had suggested to combat the crisis. In his letters, he underlined the urgent need to request the Government of India to give a special 3-month COVID revenue grant with flexibility to states in spending as per local conditions. He has also urged the states to seek review by the Finance Commission of its recommendations for the current year since the ground situation had completely changed due to the pandemic.