No deliberate under-reporting of Covid-19 deaths: Kerala CM

Thiruvananthapuram There is no under-reporting of Covid-19 deaths in Kerala and the state was following the death protocol in letter and spirit and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has lauded it several times, said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday

Thiruvananthapuram There is no under-reporting of Covid-19 deaths in Kerala and the state was following the death protocol in letter and spirit and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has lauded it several times, said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday.

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His reply came when many complaints surfaced that under-reporting of Covid deaths was quite rampant in the state. The CM has underplayed reports that appeared in a section of media that in May the government had reported only 404 Covid deaths officially but actual deaths were more than 10,000. Local bodies’ death registration figures contradicted the official data in last three months in a big way, media reports based on the reply obtained under the Right to Information Act said.

“Reporting all deaths under such trying circumstances is difficult. We haven’t done deliberate under- reporting. If there are complaints we will look into,” he said. He cited the case of a north Indian state and said when more than one lakh died in that state official toll was only 2461. He said such things will never happen in a state like Kerala.

“Such a situation never arose in Kerala. We reported at least one death out of three. There is no deliberate attempt towards this,” he said adding the ICMR lauded it several times. But the opposition Congress said its workers have started compiling details of all Covid-19 deaths and it will release it if the government failed to do so by next week.

Though the CM expressed concern over the high test positivity rate (TPR) he said there is no need to panic about this. He said in many states second wave started in March and peaked immediately but in Kerala it began in May and its progression is slow.

Meanwhile the state reported 14,087 new cases on Saturday with a test positivity rate of 10. 7 per cent. The average TPR of last seven days was 10. 4, health ministry statistics show. The state has an active caseload of 1,15,226. For almost a month the state is reporting almost one- third of total cases in the country.