No plan to re-examine COVID death data, says Kerala Health Minister

Government is following WHO/ICMR guidelines to classify deaths, says Veena George

Health Minister Veena George said here on Friday that the government was strictly following the WHO/ICMR guidelines in classifying deaths as COVID deaths.

While the government would examine every complaint regarding the non-inclusion of any deaths in the State’s official COVID death list, any change in the manner in which the State was now deciding COVID deaths is possible only if the Centre or ICMR directs the State to changes its guidelines, she said.

Ms. George was fielding questions at a press conference organised by the district committee of the Kerala Union of Working Journalists .

Though Ms. George reiterated that the public can file complaints regarding non-inclusion of COVID deaths to the government, she did not commit whether the State will undertake a COVID deaths data reconciliation exercise, which is what the Opposition as well as all public health experts in the State have been demanding.

What the Minister essentially said was that while individual complaints regarding non-inclusion of COVID deaths in the official list would be addressed, the State did not have any plans as of now to re-examine the State’s entire COVID death data. She also said that the government had no

Veena George 

t received any such complaints so far.

She said the “random errors” (of non-inclusion of COVID deaths in official list), if any, can be examined.

The Minister said that the allegation raised by the Opposition that the State was deliberately fudging the COVID death data was baseless. She said that when the State undertakes a formal excess death analysis for the pandemic period, the facts would be revealed.

She said that the State’s case fatality rate continued to be 0.4% in the second wave also.

New system

The government has nothing to hide and it is to set allegations of lack of transparency at rest that a hospital-based new online COVID death reporting system was put in place, she said. The backlog of undeclared deaths would be cleared and the list updated soon, she added.

She said if individual privacy is not an issue, the government would contemplate publishing the list of COVID deaths along with the names of the deceased and other details.

Regarding the payment of ex gratia assistance to families, all efforts would be taken to ensure that none eligible for the benefits were left out.

While the government had not contemplated a complaint redressal mechanism yet, the public can file complaints by email. None will have to go hunting from office to office

Ms. George said that the State was doing continuous genetic sequencing for virus surveillance. She said that though lockdown had been lifted and relaxations allowed, it was for the public, including those who are fully vaccinated, to maintain all COVID protocol and precautions and keep oneself safe, as the delta virus variant was extremely transmissible.

The State cannot afford to have an upsurge in cases and a third wave so soon, especially when the hospitals continue to have a considerable number of patients even now, she said.

Source: Read Full Article