NE NEWS SERVICE
CHENNAI, JULY 22
After admitting a possible mismatch in the Covid-19 fatalities earlier, the Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday said previously unreported 444 deaths related to the virus in the city have been added to the Coronavirus tally.
#TN #COVID19 Update:
Today/Total – 5,849/1,86,492
Active – 51,765
Discharged Today/Total – 4,910/1,31,583
Death Today/Total – 74 / 2,700+444*
Samples Tested Today/Total – 60,112/20,95,757
*For more info visit https://t.co/YJxHMQexUK@CMOTamilNadu @Vijayabaskarofl @MoHFW_INDIA— National Health Mission – Tamil Nadu (@NHM_TN) July 22, 2020
A nine-member Death Reconciliation Committee formed by the Health department to streamline Covid-19 deaths data assessed all the deaths suspected to be linked with the infection in Chennai.
Subsequently, Chennai’s death toll stood at 1939, while that of the state went up to 3,144. The committee recommended that the 444 deaths would also fall under the category of Covid-19 deaths as per the ICMR guidelines “though such cases were medically considered died due to co-morbiditiy or other terminal illness,” a Health Department bulletin said.
“The committee, in consonance with the guidelines issued by WHO and the Central government, found that 444 deaths occurred from March 1 till mid-June.”
“After scrutinising the Chennai Corporation death registry, (we) found the difference comparing it with the bulletins issued by the state health department,” Tamil Nadu Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan said.
As per the guidelines, the deaths that have occurred during the pandemic period will be considered as Covid-19 deaths and hence those numbers have been added to the Coronavirus death tally, he told reporters here.
Reports had indicated that there was a difference of deaths in the register maintained by the Greater Chennai Corporation and the one managed by the state Directorate of Public Health (DPH).
According to the bulletin, the deaths of those testing positive for the virus from March 1 with respect to Greater Chennai corporation were collected, compiled by the directorate of medical education for medical college institutions and directorate of medical and rural health services for their own institutions and private hospitals.
As per the ICMR guidelines the deaths of those testing positive were declared as Covid death irrespective of underlying or antecedent cause of death and the department constituted a committee to reconcile the fatalities by comparing relevant details from institutions and those obtained from burial grounds.
