THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: HIGHLIGHTING the high number of Covid cases and related fatalities over the past few weeks, the Central government has once again urged Kerala to bring the Covid situation under control.
The concern was raised in a letter sent on December 4 by Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan to his counterpart in the state. Though Kerala continues to report a high number of daily cases, the letter chose to ignore the fact that most of the recently-listed deaths are the ones previously unaccounted for.
The state had started the reconciliation effort to correct past mistakes on October 22. So far, close to 12,000 deaths have been added in this manner.
As a result, the percentage of Kerala’s contribution to the number of Covid-related deaths in the country has crossed 75%.
A death analysis report by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) a fortnight ago was more scathing on the quantum of backlog deaths being added.
It said the situation has brought to fore a gap in the state’s effective implementation of containment strategy in the past few months and belied claims regarding the management of fatalities.
The recent letter said that the state reported a slight increase in weekly deaths to 2,118 (week ending December 3) from 1,890 (week ending November 26). It also pointed out that four districts — Thrissur, Malappuram, Kozhikode and Kollam — were reporting a high quantum of weekly deaths.
However, it should be noted that Kollam reported six and eight deaths, while 156 and 85 pending deaths were added, on November 27 and December 1 respectively.
Some health activists are blaming the lack of transparency by the state health department for attracting unwarranted criticism from the Centre.
“While the state’s reconciliation effort is a positive move, the government should also mention the date of these deaths for more clarity,” said Dr N M Arun, public health activist.