U’khand issued 5.3k more death certificates than last year: RTI

STATE HEALTH SERVICES DEPARTMENT PROVIDED DATA FOR THE WHOLE OF 2020, BUT FOR 2021, IT COULD ONLY PROVIDE DATA FOR THE FIRST 4 MONTHS

DEHRADUN: The Uttarakhand government issued a total of 23,324 death certificates between January and April this year, which was 5,343 more than the corresponding period last year, an RTI reply by the state health services department has revealed. Following this, opposition parties and activists have accused the state government of covering up the true extent of the impact of Covid-19 in the state.

The state saw 960 Covid-19 deaths from February 2 to April 30 as no health bulletin was issued by state in January in the first four months of the year.

The right to information application was filed by the former state secretary of Samajwadi Party, Rakesh Barthwal, who had sought information about the death certificates issued in the state from April 2020 till June this year.

The state health services department provided data for the whole of 2020, but for 2021, it could only provide data for the first four months, saying that data after April was yet to come.

Of the 23,324 deaths, 13,807 were men and 9,517 women. In 2020, Uttarakhand had issued 62,219 death certificates of which 17,981 were issued from January to April. Of these, 10,520 were for men and 7,461 for women.

This January, 5,986 death certificates were issued, followed by 5,424 in February and 5,572 in March.

In April, during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of death certificates issued rose to 6,342, which was 2,751 more than the April 2020 figure.

The most number of death certificates this year were issued in Dehradun (5,659), followed by Haridwar (3,865) and US Nagar (3,337).

To be sure, death certificates issued in a period do not necessarily have to correspond with the deaths in the same period.

And state governments have worked at registering all deaths, something that could explain an organic increase in deaths.

Opposition Congress and social activists have questioned the authenticity of the number of Covid-19 deaths reported by the government.

Congress state spokesperson Garima Dasauni attacked the BJP-led state government, saying, “There is definitely something fishy in the Covid-19 death figures reported by the government. It is not allowing the actual death figures to come out.”

The government has denied any connection between the death certificate numbers and Covid-19 deaths.