NE HEALTH BUREAU
NEW DELHI, MAY 6
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has said that it is in the process of ascertaining the vaccination status of doctors who died of Covid-19 this year. A study by the IMA showed that a total of 126 doctors died of Covid-19 this year. Whereas the toll last year was 736.
“Health department of Government of India and various states should maintain an official data of Health Care Workers affected and died due to Covid with their vaccination status. Unfortunately, the government is not doing it hence IMA is trying to collect this data,” Dr Ravi Wankhedkar said.
The Centre started the nationwide vaccination drive for health care workers and old age people from January 16 this year.
Out of the 16-crore vaccination conducted so far, 94.7 Lakh healthcare workers (HCWs) have taken the first dose while 63.5 Lakh HCWs have received the second dose.
IMA has also created a Covid Martyrs Fund from which Rs 1.6 crore has been disbursed to families of deceased doctors so far.
Worst affected Covid states with lesser deaths
The data showed that the highest deaths of doctors were registered from Bihar (49). Bihar, which recently registered a surge in Covid-19, was among the least affected states in number of Covid-19 deaths. It registered 2,926 deaths since the pandemic began last year.
However, there are 6 states which have registered more than 10,000 Covid deaths- Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Karnataka and West Bengal. 12 states have registered more than 5,000 deaths.
Among the worse affected states, Maharashtra has registered 9 Covid deaths, 8 deaths in Delhi, 6 deaths in Tamil Nadu, 5 in West Bengal and 1 in Uttarakhand.
In February, the IMA had refuted government’s data that stated that 162 doctors died due to Covid-19 in the country, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) in February said that it is “shocked” and pegged the figure at 734.
