Utter failure of Kerala model! State govt admits of under-reporting of COVID death, to add 7,000 undocumented deaths to official list
It should be noted that Kerala had officially reported a total of 26,000 deaths.
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Thiruvananthapuram, October 11: Finally admitting that the state’s Covid-19 deaths were being under-reported, Kerala Health Minister Veena George informed that the state assembly that over 7,000 Covid deaths were found to be not included in the state's Covid death tally. She also added that the state government has also decided to add 7,000 death to the state’s Covid-19 death tally.
Kerala Health Minister Veena George informed the Assembly that of the total COVID death tally over 7,000 deaths were found to be not included. She claimed that the misinformation of the data was observed due to technical lapses like missing out on patients' details and wasn't an intentional act of the government to exclude deaths from the list.
Responding to oppositions' allegation, George said "The process of registration was done based on the guidelines of ICMR. The department took the initiative to include the excluded cases in the list,” She further told that online entry of COVID-19 deaths started in hospitals during June, this year and the missed out numbers were of earlier months which will be documented to the list.
After the health minister admitted of hiding the deaths that occurred due to COVID-19, the opposition walked out of the state assembly as a protest against Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for not providing accurate data.
It should be noted that Kerala had officially reported a total of 26,000 deaths with a 0.54 percent case fatality rate. With the new addition, the total Covid-19 death tally of Kerala will go up to over 33,000.
Till that time, a state medical board used to review deaths and announce the final list. This practice was criticised by health experts and opposition parties because the board allegedly didn’t include a large number where the patients had tested negative for Covid-19 after being infected, but died later due to complications caused by the Chinese virus infection.
From June second week, the practice of review of deaths by the board was stopped, and the hospitals started directly uploading death numbers.
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