57 COVID-19 patients died in Bengal, 18 directly due to the virus: Bengal audit committee

Within hours after the Inter Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) sought details regarding the method of functioning of state government’s audit committee the West Bengal Government announced that 57 COVID-19 positive patients have died in the state.

It further stated that as per audit committee’s report 18 out of the 57 deaths were “ directly COVID-19 related” and as for the remaining 39 deaths “severe co-morbid conditions” was the immediate reason behind death.

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Addressing the media persons on Friday Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha said that the audit committee has stated in its report that in case of the remaining 39 deaths COVID-19 was an “incidental finding.”

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The report of the “expert committee” released by the state government stated that it was formed on April 3, 2020, for “conducting an audit into the death of COVID-19 positive patients and till date has examined 57 death cases of persons who tested positive for COVID-19. While 18 deaths were due to “COVID-19 infections.” As for the remaining 39 deaths, it stated that “severe co-morbid conditions” were the “immediate cause of death and COVID-19 was the incidental finding.”

Sinha said that the reason why the state government decided to set up the audit committee was that it wanted to find out how many deaths have “actually occurred due to COVID-19 and how many deaths were “facilitated by COVID-19.”

Referring to an earlier communication by the Union Health Secretary Sinha said that the former told the state government that it was important that some sort of a “death audit” is done as COVID-19 cases are reported.

Earlier in the day IMCT leader Apurva Chandra wrote to Sinha seeking government order for constituting “the committee of doctors” to determine the cause of death for COVID-19 patients, case records of COVID-19 patients whose death was attributed to some other cause by committee, time is taken by it to reach conclusions.

Chandra also sought to know whether such a committee exists for ascertaining the cause of death in any other disease in the state and is such a committee in line with “ICMR guidelines or medical practice.” He also sought interaction with the committee members to “understand” their methodology.