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Nearly 7,000 deaths added to Kerala’s Covid-19 toll amid charges of undercounting
Earlier many medical experts and opposition leaders questioned the government’s rule to declare Covid-19 deaths and sought more transparency to rectify undercounting. But the government insisted that the guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) were being followed and refuted the charges.
The Covid-19 death toll in Kerala is set to shoot up as the state government on Friday decided to add 7,000 more deaths which were excluded due to various reasons to the Covid-19 fatality list. With the new addition, the death toll will go up from 26,072 to 33,072 in the state.
State health minister Veena George said in the assembly that around 7,000 deaths which were not included in the list due to absence of various certificates and other technical issues will be added to the list of Covid-19 victims. The minister denied the opposition charge that there were deliberate attempts to underplay the death rate to keep the state’s low mortality rate intact.
Earlier many medical experts and opposition leaders questioned the government’s rule to declare Covid-19 deaths and sought more transparency to rectify undercounting. But the government insisted that the guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) were being followed and refuted the charges.
However, it was forced to dilute its adamant posture after the Supreme Court announced a relief of ₹50,000 to families of the victims and government offices were flooded with inquiries. After the verdict, the government modified the guidelines and launched an online service to obtain Covid-19 death certificates.
“There was no deliberate attempt to exclude deaths of many from the list. We have been following the guidelines of the ICMR and due to a few technical glitches some deaths have been left out. We will revise the list again,” the minister said while replying to an adjournment motion moved by the opposition. She said some deaths were excluded during the period between March 2020 and June 2021 and later the health department introduced a better reporting system.
But the angry opposition members insisted on an explanation and later walked out of the house. “The government did it deliberately to maintain its record of low mortality. The list is incomplete as many Covid-19 deaths have not figured in the list. Its public relations exercise fell flat. No government should have done such a disservice to its people,” said opposition leader VD Satheesan. He said the government was even denying the paltry relief to victims due to its indifferent attitude.
Earlier Covid-19 deaths were ascertained in the state if they tested positive at the time of their death. But many patients developed pneumonia even after they tested negative and died after their condition aggravated. Also many other patients whose co-morbid conditions worsened after recovery were also not included in the list. There was a death audit committee in the state capital which used to declare Covid-19 deaths after analysing the reports given by the respective hospitals. This weird system drew enough flak but the government took refuge in the ICMR guidelines which was modified several times but it stuck to its initial position.
“The government is slowly admitting its mistakes. It has done a grave injustice to victims. We need more transparency and these measures should not be politicised,” said public health expert Dr SS Lal, who was earlier with the World Health Organisation.
Kerala reported 10,944 new virus cases on Friday after 95,510 samples were tested with a test positivity rate of 11.45 per cent. The active case load is 1,16,645, according to the data released by the state health ministry. For more than four months now, the state has been reporting the maximum number of Covid-19 cases in the country.
