Karnataka govt isn’t suppressing Covid-19 death figures: K Sudhakar

Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar on Tuesday told the Legislative Assembly that Karnataka’s Covid-19 mortality was decreasing, even as the Opposition Congress maintained that the BJP government was suppressing the figures.

“The mortality rate is 1.36% in Bengaluru and 1.54% in Karnataka,” Sudhakar said, intervening during Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah’s speech on the Covid-19 situation.

Quoting statistics, Siddaramaiah said 272 people for every one lakh infected with Covid-19 were dying in Karnataka. “Our mortality rate is rising,” he said, adding that the state stood 7th in India on this count.

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When Sudhakar disagreed, Congress’ Eshwar Khandre said the government was suppressing the death numbers.

Irked, the minister said Karnataka had received appreciation from the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) on data disclosure.

“Nobody is giving wrong numbers. When it comes to testing, deaths, and treatment, Karnataka is giving proper data,” Sudhakar said.

Former health minister U T Khader of the Congress said the mortality rate in terms of percentage was misleading. “How does the death rate come down? If there are 1 lakh cases and 100 deaths, the percentage will be less. For the earlier figures of 10,000 cases, the number of deaths will show a high percentage. That doesn’t mean deaths are low, but it’s just the percentage that’s low,” Khader pointed out.

Coronavirus India update: State-wise total number of confirmed cases, deaths on September 22

To this, Sudhakar said it is important to note the number of people who have recovered.

“Out of 5.26 lakh Covid-19 cases, 4.2 lakh have recovered. If there were no recoveries, how will the death rate come down? Recovery is directly proportional to fatalities,” he said.

“Why is the death rate high in other states and countries? The global average is 3.6%. In some countries, it is as high as 10%,” he said, adding that Karnataka’s target was to keep the fatality rate below 1%.