Comments
Covid-19 death toll in West Bengal continued to be under the scanner with the State government revising its numbers yet again, over a six day-period.
An expert committee, set up by the State health department, maintains that 105 “who have tested positive for Covid-19” have died. Of these, Covid-19 is a direct cause of death in 33; while the virus is an “incidental finding” in 72 other having “co-morbidities”.
Last week, this expert committee report stated that 57 people who had died had tested positive for Covid-19 with 39 having co-morbidities. Co-morbidities include diabetes, hypertension and other ailments.
“The updated report of the audit committee states that there are 105 deaths of which 33 are directly because of Covid-19; in the remaining 72, Covid was an incidental finding. The expert committee is not auditing the death certificates but only the death cases,” Chief Secretary, Rajiva Sinha, said at the Secretariat.
On how these 72 deaths will be categorised, he reiterated that “Covid-19 was an incidental finding in these cases”.
Over the last 24 hours, West Bengal reported 37 new cases and 11 deaths. Official figures say there are 572 active corona cases and 33 deaths.
For research purposes
The Chief Secretary maintained that the expert committee was set-up for “research purposes” and was “making suggestions and recommendations” for better handling and management of the Covid-19 pandemic. Suggestions include “understanding symptoms”, determining treatment protocols, marking out immediate cause, antecedent cause and underlying causes in death certificates; better maintenance of medical records and so on.
“Coronavirus outbreak is an emerging situation and we hope that these suggestions will help manage things better. I am not sure if recommendations will immediately be made public,” Sinha added.
This expert committee had been under the political scanner with the Opposition seeing it as an attempt to downplay death figures. The State on its part has repeatedly denied such allegations.
The inter-ministerial central team, sent by the Union Home Ministry, has also raised questions on formation of the audit committee.
Facing multiple questions, the Chief Minister and State Health Minister, Mamata Banerjee, had on Wednesday, claimed she neither had any idea about the committee, nor was she involved in its formation.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.