The Uttarakhand high court has called into question the state government’s Covid death figures and said it cannot accept them. The government had submitted a death audit in court on Wednesday following the HC’s June 9 directive.
Uttarakhand has so far reported over 3.39 lakh Covid cases and 7,068 deaths. Of these deaths, 978 were ‘backlog’ deaths or deaths that were reported late by hospitals.
A division bench comprising Justice R S Chauhan and Justice Alok Verma punched holes in the state government’s report on the ground that the reason of death given by the chief medical officer of Almora for all 111 cases for the month of May was identical – ‘cardiopulmonary arrest’ or heart attack.
“It is rather surprising that 111 persons have died due to the same cause…Moreover, if the report is supposed to mean that the heart had stopped functioning, it is common knowledge that a dead body does not contain a beating heart,” the court observed.
It added that the cause of death is suspicious, so the court cannot accept the “veracity and validity of such documents”.
{{/usCountry}}It added that the cause of death is suspicious, so the court cannot accept the “veracity and validity of such documents”.
{{/usCountry}}HT has seen a copy of the order.
The court also said that it had asked for the death audit to be accompanied by death certificates, but the order hasn’t been complied with. “Furthermore, it has not even been informed by the government as to how many persons have died of Covid-19 in the wake of the second wave…” the court said.
The court was hearing a bunch of petitions covering different aspects about the fight against Covid-19 in Uttarakhand filed by individuals named Sachdanand Dabral, Dushyant Mainali, Anu Pant and Rajendra Arya.
Anoop Nautiyal, founder of an NGO named Social Development for Communities Foundation (SDC), said there has been a lot of ambiguity about the Covid fatalities in the state with some hospitals delaying their reports. He said the backlog deaths were all reported between October 17, 2020, and June 23, 2021.
He also doubted the death count of Haridwar, which hosted the Mahakumbh that attracted nearly 6 million pilgrims in April. “Haridwar reported 91 Covid deaths in April and 591 in May. We need more clarity on how Haridwar, which was visited by millions of people, had just 91 deaths,” Nautiyal said while appreciating the HC for raising doubts about the government’s figures.
When contacted, Abhishek Tripathi, nodal officer for Covid in Uttarakhand, said the issues raised by the HC will be looked into and a reply will be filed in court.
On Wednesday, while questioning the state government’s preparedness to check the spread of the pandemic and the Delta plus variant, HC directed the state government to file a detailed affidavit in this regard by July 7.