Expert committee conducted audits into deaths of 105 COVID-19 patients: West Bengal CS

The expert committee conducting audits into deaths of COVID-19 patients in West Bengal has so far examined death cases of 105 COVID-19 positive patients, Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha said on Thursday.

Referring to the latest report submitted by the committee, he said that out of 105 death cases, COVID-19 was the direct cause of death in 33 cases and the remaining 72 deaths occurred due to co-morbidities.

“Altogether 105 cases ( expert committee) have been examined, out of which 33 were due to COVID-19 infection and the remaining 72 were due to co-morbidities where COVID-19 was incidental (finding) ,” said Sinha. He was speaking to media persons at the state secretariat.

The state government’s had declared deaths of 57 COVID-19 patients on April 24, out of which 18 were “directly COVID-19 related” and as for the remaining 39 deaths, “severe co-morbid conditions” were immediate cause of death.

Sinha clarified that the expert committee was not conducting any audit into death certificates but was only conducting audit in death cases.

“Today I have received report from the expert committee conducting audits into deaths of COVID-19 positive patients...Kindly note that this committee was not doing any kind of audit in death certificates. It was only doing audit in death cases,” said Sinha.

He said that the number of active COVID-19 patients have gone up to 572. The state recorded 37 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours. With 15 COVID-19 patients being discharged after getting cured in the 24 hours so far, 139 persons have been recovered from the infection.

Earlier in the day Home Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay said that 2368 students from Bengal who are being brought back from Rajasthan’s Kota are expected to reach their home state on Friday.

“2368 students of West Bengal are being brought back from Kota in 95 buses with State government officers as escorts and likely to reach tomorrow,” tweeted Bandyopadhyay.