BENGALURU: The Department of Health and Family Welfare has requested the government to constitute a state-level death audit team to look into the reasons behind Covid-19 deaths registered in the state during the third wave. The state’s toll is the third highest in the country in terms of cumulative deaths at 39,250, the highest being Maharashtra’s (1,42,940) followed by Kerala (57,296) as of Friday.
“We have asked the principal secretary to request the State Government to form a state-level committee for conducting an audit of the deaths in the third wave. The team can comprise a group of doctors, officials from the Health Department and representatives from the BBMP. This will help identify the exact reasons behind the death and also guide in formulating treatment strategies and preventive measures,” said Health and Family Welfare Department commissioner Randeep D.
Speaking to TNIE, he explained that Karnataka has been appreciated for its better reporting system. The state has a robust reporting system at the district level and hence, the numbers are coming out, he explained. India marked a grim record of over five lakh Covid-19 deaths on Saturday. Karnataka, in the Omicron-dominated third wave between January 1 and February 5, has recorded 960 deaths.
Health Department officials say that from the cumulative information from all the districts, it was found that the state recorded 645 deaths in January. About 30 deaths in January were those who died at home, during transit or were brought dead.
District officials were asked to conduct death audits on each of these Covid-19 deaths and the reports from all the districts have been given. However, Randeep said the reports need to be assessed by a state-level team and hence, constituting a committee will help.
Prima facie, the reports from the districts have shown Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) to be the major reason for the deaths. Nearly 30-35% of the cases are of those people who have co-morbidities and Covid-19 had aggravated their condition. Also, the reporting time analysis of these patients showed that nearly 53% of the deaths happened within two days of reporting to hospitals.
“This means that these deaths could have been prevented if there was early intervention. A possible reason also could be miscommunication that Omicron is mild and the patients may have waited to reach hospital,” Randeep explained.
Sources said the team may be constituted soon and this will help to also identify how many of these deaths were due to Covid-19 being the primary cause, how many were incidental findings, had co-morbidities and had come for other treatment and Covid-19 being a secondary cause, etc.