Kerala’s Covid deaths double the official tally, over 13,000 not counted in state data

More than 13,000 Covid-19 fatalities have been overlooked in Kerala, revealing a sharp mismatch in the official death data put out by the state health department and the number of Covid-19 deaths registered with local self governments.

Between June 10-15, 2021, Kerala has recorded 26,768 Covid-19 deaths according to local self governments across the state. The official death figures released by the state stand at 13,640 as on July 4, 2021. The number of deaths is likely to be higher because the death data from local self governments are from June, while the official statistics is the latest figure.

While reading the data, please keep in mind that figures from more than 200 local self governments have not been obtained. Kerala has 941 grama panchayats, 152 block panchayats, 14 district panchayats, 87 municipalities and six corporations.

This was first reported by the newspaper Malayala Manorama, where a group of reporters guided by chief reporter Manoj Kadampad accessed data from all districts.

According to the data available with National Herald, the state has recorded 2,859 deaths in Thiruvananthapuram. However, the figures collated from the district local bodies reveal that there have more 4,200 Covid-19 deaths in the state capital. A Right to Information response has divulged that there were 3,172 Covid-19 deaths at the Government Medical College in Thiruvananthapuram as of June 3. The RTI response stated that in the hospital, between May 1-31,2021, there 1,299 deaths, an average of 42 deaths per day. These deaths include patients who have a history of asthma, bronchitis, cancer, diabetes. The state does not include patients who have a history of any other illness in its Covid-19 death records even if the patient died due to Covid-19.

A similar discrepancy has been noted in Alappuzha district too where in the district medical college 1,480 Covid-19 deaths were recorded, though of this 734 died due to Covid-18 complications in the hospital even though they tested negative for Covid-19 just before their deaths. The official Covid-19 death number stands at 1,017.

The starkest Covid-19 death data discrepancy is from Malappuram and Kollam districts. Malappuram district figures show 2,758 Covid-19 deaths, while the state has recorded only 1,049 deaths, a difference of 1,709. The official figures from Kollam state that there have been only 922 deaths, while the data from local bodies show 2,617 deaths have occurred, a difference of 1,695 deaths. Kollam is one of the districts from where complete data has been obtained.

In Kerala, hospitals send death data to the local self government, as do families where a person has died at home due to Covid-19. This data is sent to the state death audit committee, which decides who will be included in the state’s official Covid-19 death tally. It has been observed that even those patients who contracted pneumonia after testing positive for Covid-19 were excluded from the state’s death list.

In Ernakulam, local government data discloses 2,600 Covid-19 deaths, while the official figures state only 1,314 deaths, a difference of 1,286 deaths. Palakkad district figures notes 2,577 deaths, while the state health department has counted only 1,191 Covid-19 deaths. Data from Thrissur local bodies show 2,197 Covid-19 deaths, while the state has recorded only 1,437. In Kozhikode, local government data shows 2,122 deaths due to Covid-19, while the official state data shows only 1,363 deaths. In Kannur, the state has recorded only 859 Covid-19 deaths, but local bodies have recorded 1,981 deaths.

In Kasargod, local governments have recorded 741 Covid-19 deaths, while the official figures state only 246. This is even though in May 2021, a controversy had broken out that the Kerala government was burying Covid-19 death toll from the district. According to a news report, 36 persons had died due to Covid-19 in the first six days of May, but then state government had recorded the last death in the district only on April 22.

In Kasargod, the numbers are likely to be even higher, because several Covid-19 patients from the district had gone to neighbouring Mangalore in Karnataka for treatment. It is not yet clear if all those deaths have added or simply forgotten.

In Kottayam, local self governments have recorded 1,063 deaths, while the official tally is 572. In Pathanamthitta, 933 Covid-19 deaths have been recorded, but the official tally is 434 deaths. Covid-19 death figures from 20 panchayats in the district could not be obtained. In Wayanad, the local governments have recorded 342 deaths, but the state has only 229 deaths. Here too it was difficult to collect the data.

This discrepancy in data is likely to lead to a furore in the state as the Supreme Court has directed the union government and the Prime Minister-headed National Disaster Management Authority to frame guidelines to announce ex-gratia amount to Covid-19 victims. The court said they cannot fix the amount and the state and union governments will have to fix it. The petitioners, advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal and Reepak Kansal, had asked for a payment of ₹4 lakh each to the families of COVID-19 victims.

The Supreme Court had also ordered state governments to issue correct death certificates stating the accurate cause of death. This is so that the family members of those who died due to COVID-19 don’t face any difficulty in getting the benefits of such a scheme if and when it’s declared by the government.

States were also ordered to issue simplified guidelines for the issuance of death certificates stating ‘death due to COVID-19’. These guidelines, the Supreme Court stated, must state that if a person has died after they were found positive for COVID-19 and they have died within two to three months, either in the hospital or outside the hospital or at home, the death certificate must be issued with the cause of deaths as “Died due to COVID-19”. These directions from the Supreme Court will further increase the Covid-19 death tally in the state and the country.