Kerala now stands at third position in terms of total deaths by Covid-19 in India. Since the beginning, the state has reported a total of 37,495 deaths because of the deadly disease. Only Maharashtra (1,40,739) and Karnataka (38,175) have reported more deaths compared to Kerala. Earlier, it was believed that Kerala managed to keep the number of Covid deaths in control. Even during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, the state only contributed to 1.4% of the total number of deaths in the country.
However, by September 2021, its share rose to over 45% and spiked to above 64% in October 2021. It is noteworthy that around 80% of the deaths that the state reported in the month of October were backlog deaths. Kerala did not properly report the Covid deaths as they happened, reportedly majorly due to the unwillingness of the state. As per reports, the state did not acknowledge co-morbidities as a factor in the deaths caused by Covid.
In just 27 days, from October 22 to November 17, the state of Kerala reported 7,731 deaths that made almost 21% of the total deaths reported in the state. Out of these 7,731 deaths, only 1,257 were from the month of October, while the remaining 6,581 were backlog deaths.
Opposition parties and public health experts had alleged that Kerala was not transparent with the data on Covid deaths. Eventually, Veena George, Health Minister, Kerala, promised transparency. In the last few months, Kerala added the unreported Covid deaths to the tally. In a recent statement, the state health Minister had said the government would add around 7,000 “missing Covid deaths” to the tally.
Interestingly, health officials of the state are pointing fingers at the Centre for the “unreported” deaths. Rajan N Khobragade, principal secretary, health, said, “The government is of the view that the additions in the death data are being made based on the appeals the state government is receiving now. The Centre had amended the guidelines for declaring the deaths based on which now the additions are being made.”
He further alleged that only Kerala is reporting the deaths as per the “Supreme Court instructions and revised guidelines of ICMR”. On the other hand, internal medicine expert, Dr Arun N M, said, “This is what we have been saying all along, as we have a high number of persons with co-morbidities as well as an ageing population. The government was initially hiding Covid deaths but has now been forced to accept it. At the same time, apart from a few days in May this year, our hospitals were never overwhelmed.”
Dr Jayakrishnan A V, chairman of, Indian Medical Association’s (IMA) Hospital Board of India, pointed that the state wanted to show it was “good and efficient”. He said, “In the initial phase of Covid-19 infection, the whole focus of the state and medical institutions was on showing fewer Covid deaths as low mortality numbers are equated with good and efficient government administration. Now since no one is talking about Covid and Covid deaths, the state is slowly adding its backlog deaths to the official data.”
Congress leader V D Satheeshan alleged that the Kerala government had been flouting all WHO and ICMR guidelines while determining Covid deaths. “They were not ready to include the deaths under Covid account if a patient had any co-morbidities,” he said. Sateeshan said it was only after Supreme Court ordered compensation, the state was forced to review all Covid deaths in the state. “I believe over 18,000 applications have been received by the government regarding deaths not included in the official Covid deaths data,” he added.
Covid-19 in Kerala
Kerala has been consistently reporting over 50% of the total cases across the country. On November 21, the state reported 5,080 new COVID-19 cases and 40 deaths. It also added 156 backlog deaths to the tally on Sunday. So far, Kerala has reported 50,04,786 Covid-19 cases and 37,495 deaths. There are 58,723 active cases in the state.
