CUTTACK: The State government has informed the Orissa High Court that 4,925 persons have died due to Covid-19 by July 15 this year. Additional Chief Secretary of Health PK Mohapatra filed the affidavit on Tuesday. The court was considering the issue of possible under-counting of Covid deaths in Odisha.
Taking note of the affidavit, the division bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice BP Routray adjourned the hearing on the matter to July 28.
According to the affidavit, Khurda topped the districtwise audited death position with 849 fatalities followed by Sundargarh (427), Ganjam (400), Cuttack (311) and Nayagarh (132). While a total 9,49,929 positive cases were registered by July 15, maximum number was reported from Khurda (1,67,913) followed by Cuttack (82,826), Sundargarh (60,132), Puri (41,825) and Angul (41, 442), the affidavit said.
While declining to entertain a PIL seeking direction for a special audit of Covid deaths in the State on grounds of non-adherence to rules, the court took up the issue relating to under-counting raised in it and tagged it with another pending PIL concerning issues incidental to the outbreak of the pandemic on June 23. The court had then sought the districtwise death position due to Covid.
On July 5, the government had submitted that the district level committees had been constituted to review Covid deaths.
The committees were to audit the quality of care at the facilities and review deaths of positive cases and suspected patients in government and private hospitals.
They were also to examine the full medical records of the patients to strengthen the system and improve response to save lives, it was claimed.