A shocking report on Tamil nadu government failing to record several number deaths has surfaced only to shock the residents of the capital. A scrutiny of the Chennai city corporation death registry has found that at least 460 people have died of Coronavirus in Chennai till 8th of June, which is more than double the 224 announced by the directorate of public health.

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According to Times of India, it has been discovered by a team of officials who visited the ripon building on Tuesday. They found the death register maintained by a health officer of the Greater Chennai corporation had recorded 236 more deaths than the register maintained by the state. These deaths would cause a major change in the fatality rate reported by the state. The state officials has announced that the fatality rate of Tamilnadu is 0.7 % but if we add these deaths, it would be close to 1.5%. The shocking discrepancy has been blamed for the lack of communication between the concerned stakeholders including the state public health department, hospitals and the Chennai corporation.

However, Health minister Vijaya Bhaskar has been constantly denying the allegation and told to media that the state government is being transparent as far as reporting the numbers are concerned. All the medical centres which are treating COVID 19 patients are required to report deaths to the state and city corporation through mail. “Many have not submitted and we are finding out why. We will add the cases to the death registry after verification”, said Health secretary Bheela Rajesh. “A committee has been formed to reconcile the issue within a week” she added.

The directorate of public health has issue a show cause notices to hospitals and set up a committee to “streamline” death reports. Greater Chennai corporation has also received an order from DPH to send all COVID 19 death reports to the state health agency in a prescribed format. Public health officials have also been directed to analyse all domiciliary deaths and see if they could be described as “probable COVID 19”, as per the guidelines of ICMR.

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“To analyse and streamline the COVID 19 death reports with regard to Chennai corporation” the state has constituted a 11 member expert committee under the chairmanship of DPH Dr. P Vadivelan. Dr.T S Selvavinayagam, The director of public health has said it to G Prakash, the commissioner of Greater Chennai corporation through a letter.

In the two page letter, The DPH has asked the civic agency to send reports of all COVID 19 deaths as per prescribed format. It demanded identified officials such as City health officer to notify all the COVID 19 deaths that are taking place in Chennai city on a daily basis to this office. The 11 member committee will scrutinise the deaths, the letter further said.

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These efforts to get the accurate data will help to measure the public health impact, plan for timely health interventions and to protect communities, said a senior health official. “Monitoring other health conditions which are affecting the population is also essential as it would help the Government to be prepared in responding to the needs of the population” he added.

Source : Times of India