Add 236 missing fatalities to Tamil Nadu’s Covid toll: Panel

THE PANEL STUDIED THE 530 DEATHS REPORTED FROM CHENNAI’S GOVT AND PRIVATE HOSPITALS BETWEEN MARCH AND JUNE 12

CHENNAI:The 236 deaths reported from Chennai which were missing from the state’s tally should be considered as suspected Covid-19 deaths, a committee formed to reconcile the numbers has said in its report, two senior officials in the state health department confirmed to the Hindustan Times.

“The reconciliation exercise is complete and we have submitted the report to the government,” a senior official of the Tamil Nadu Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine (DPH) said.

In early June, the (DPH) found that the death registry maintained by the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) recorded 236 deaths that were not added to the state’s tally. On June 12 the DPH formed a committee to reconcile Covid-19 related deaths for Chennai.

The committee, headed by Dr P Vadivelan, has submitted the report to the state government, which will study it before making a final decision on the total numTamil ber of deaths, the two officials said.

The panel studied the 530 deaths reported from Chennai’s government and private hospitals between March and June 12.

With respect to the 236 deaths, the panel had to study what constituted a Covid-19 death, the officials said.

“Few experts were of the opinion that 49 out of the 236 deaths should be deducted because the primary cause of death was not Covid-19, though they tested positive,” a senior official of the health department who did not wish to reveal his identity, said.

Medical experts of the panel additionally studied 21 deaths of Covid-19 positive persons that occurred at home, the senior official said.

Nadu follows the Indian Council of Medical Research protocol of registering a Covid-19 death, even if the person dies due to other comorbidities or is terminally ill but has tested positive.

“Even if a person dies by suicide or of leukaemia but is positive, we register it as a Covid-19 death,” the health department official quoted above said.

The mismatch in the tally was attributed to a procedural lapse by some private hospitals, which are meant to report Covid-19 related deaths to both the GCC and the DPH, but reported the numbers only to the former. Home deaths are also recorded by the corporation, which oversees the city’s 68 burial grounds.

GCC officials said that following this mismatch, they have been updating the DPH of deaths it registers every day.

On July 4, Chennai reported 37 out of 65 deaths in Tamil Nadu on that day, taking the toll to 1,033 and 1,450, respectively.

It is as yet unclear if the verified deaths from the 236 cases were simultaneously added to the state’s health bulletin.