Kerala not reporting ‘nearly half’ of its Covid deaths, expert panel says process ambiguous

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New Delhi: Early into the pandemic, Kerala won praises for effectively tackling the novel coronavirus threat. But a superspreader event in July unravelled that success. Now, a state government-constituted expert panel has told Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s administration that Kerala is undercounting Covid-19 deaths in the state, ThePrint has learnt.

According to a report submitted by the panel to the government on 10 August, the process of counting Covid deaths in Kerala is “ambiguous”, because of a change in the criteria on 20 July, when the state decided to not include patients with comorbidities in the tally. ThePrint has seen the report.

 

While the panel didn’t submit a figure for the deaths that have been undercounted, ThePrint spoke to a group of doctors and medical experts in Kerala who have been maintaining a death tally based on media reports and official data available in public domain.

According to them, the state is not reporting nearly half of the Covid deaths. They said the “actual” Covid toll in Kerala as of Friday morning is 345. However, the official data puts this figure at 191, against a total caseload of 52,199. This suggests the state has underreported at least 154 Covid deaths so far.

In its submissions, the 11-member expert panel, which was constituted in March, has demanded that the Vijayan government reverses its decision, and the Covid tally in Kerala must be audited again.

 

Asked to comment on the expert panel’s report, Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Kerala, Rajan Khobragade evaded a direct comment on the allegation of undercounting. He said “these experts” should visit him and also all the hospitals first “and then speak”.

“In fact, not just in Kerala but (they should go) all over the country to see how Covid is being managed here,” Khobragade told ThePrint.