CHENNAI: Covid deaths in Tamil Nadu in 2021 might be hugely under reported as the number of excess deaths this year is 7.13 times more than the number of Covid deaths reported in the State’s health bulletin, stated a report by Arappor Iyakkam.
The Chennai-based NGO, in a report released on Saturday, said that the State has recorded an excess mortality of 1,42,143 deaths between January 1 and June 25 this year, compared to the same period in 2019. The NGO, which derived the results from the government’s Civil Registration System (CRS), said that while the excess mortality is 1.42 lakh, the number of Covid deaths recorded during the period is only 19,929.
“This means, the excess deaths in 2021 are 7.13 times more than the number of Covid deaths recorded by the State health bulletin,” the report said. With that, the NGO has hinted at a massive under-reporting of Covid deaths in Tamil Nadu, concurring with its previous report released, which stated that six hospitals in the State had under reported Covid deaths.
Arappor Iyakkam also said that as per the CRS data, the State recorded 2.92 lakh deaths between January and May 25, while on June 26, the number of total deaths jumped to 4.49 lakh. Convenor of the NGO, Jayaram Venkatesan, has demanded an independent audit of mortality for revision of Covid death numbers, and ensuring a simple grievance redress mechanism for revision of cause of death in medical certificates.
“Only if the medical certificate cites death due to Covid, the victims become eligible for Covid solatium and other benefits,” he said. Health Department officials said that a process is under way to review number of deaths. “There is no time period fixed to rectify cause of death in medical certificates, and it is done in several cases,” an official said.