Bengal Audits Coronavirus-Linked Deaths, Gives 2 Sets Of Figures Again

For the second time in six days, the Bengal government announced two sets of numbers for coronavirus-positive cases who died. The government said 105 people who tested positive for COVID-19 have died in Bengal since the beginning of the pandemic. But of the 105 deaths, 33 were caused by the virus. The balance 72 deaths were caused by co-morbidities and COVID-19 in those cases was only incidental, the government said, citing the findings of its controversial death audit committee.

On April 24, after the Central IMCT team asked for details of the death audit committee, the Chief Secretary revealed for the first time that there was a difference between the death figure shared publicly and the actual number of coronavirus-positive people who died and were examined by the audit committee.

Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha said last week that the death committee had audited 57 deaths, of which 18 were caused by the virus and the balance 39 by comorbidities.

The death audit committee has been attacked by opposition parties and sections of doctors, who said neither was there no ICMR direction for setting up such a committee, nor any directive from the World Health Organisation. The committee was set up by the government to suppress the coronavirus death toll in Bengal, they claimed.

Officially, even today, the government put the death toll from COVID-19 to 33 as per the audit committee. Till yesterday, the figure was 22.

The government has denied the charge that the audit committee is being used to suppress figures.

Yesterday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said: "I don't know anything about any audit committee. I didn't setup the audit committee. I don't even know who are the members are. The chief secretary and the health secretary have set it up. "

The opposition claims the statement shows the Chief Minister is trying to distance herself from the controversial audit committee.

Revealing today's figures, Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha said the audit committee was not auditing death certificate. It was auditing the deaths to identify the exact cause.

"This is a new disease we know very little about it and the audit committee was studying these deaths to identify exact causes," Mr Sinha said.

The committee has suggested better record keeping of case details. It recommended a uniform format for death certificates that must contain immediate cause of death, antecedent cause of death and underlying cause of death, the chief secretary sad.

Tt is also very important to examine the time interval of the onset of the disease and death, he added.

The death audit committee was set up on April 3 after an expert committee announced a death toll of 7 on April 2 and the chief secretary had held a second press meet within the hour and brought the toll down to 4.

The members of the death audit committee are Dr BR Satpati, advisor of the state health and family welfare dept, Dr Plaban Mukherjee, Professor and HOD, CTVS Medical College, Dr Ashutosh Ghosh, professor and HOD critical care medicine, IPGMER and SSKM Hospital, Dr Jyotirmoy Pal, Dept of Medicine, RG Kar Medical College and Hospital and Dr Debashish Bhattacharyya, Director of Medical Education.