Pressure mounts on Kerala government to review Covid-19 deaths

With compensation being announced for dependents of those who died following Covid-19 infection, pressure is mounting on the Kerala government to review the number of Covid deaths.

While 24,318 Covid deaths have been reported in Kerala so far, the state has been facing allegations of underreporting Covid deaths from initial days of the pandemic. A total of 529 deaths following coronavirus were recorded by the Kerala health department as non-Covid-19 deaths. It said that the cause of death was not Covid-19.

The opposition Congress-led United Democratic Front in Kerala, which demanded a compensation of up to Rs 10 lakh to dependents of Covid victims, decided to initiate an auditing of the Covid-19 deaths. The Congress is even planning to engage a professional agency for the purpose.

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The state government earlier maintained that there were flaws in the Covid-19 death reporting system of the state and hence there was a backlog. A new system was introduced and afterwards the daily Covid deaths being reported increased considerably.

The state government's review of Covid deaths is still pending. Health Minister Veena George recently said that a review of deaths would be conducted only after the Centre issues guidelines for compensation.

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