Nagpur: Kerala, which has been one of the worst-Covid-19 hit states in India during both the waves has added at least 1,500 backlog deaths in November, which contributes to almost 4 per cent of the 38,353 deaths the state has seen till date.
The addition of the backlog has taken the overall Covid-19 death toll in Kerala to 38,535, ever since the pandemic began. The state has blamed poor documentation and fresh Covid-19 death guidelines for the backlog numbers. These numbers are likely to go up to as further as 17,000 appeals for considering deaths as those caused by Covid-19 are pending with a committee that is overseeing norms for distributing compensation.
What remains as a question is that even after state health minister Veena George accepted in the assembly that only 7,000 deaths hadn’t been added in the list, till now only half of them have been added. Some of the backlog deaths are being added to the first half of 2020.
George in a statement said, “From day one we have been following guidelines of Indian Council of Medical Research and there is no deliberate attempt to lessen numbers. Due to some technical glitches and other reasons some deaths failed to find in the list. We have already revised the list.”
Public health experts and opposition parties have been alleging that the Kerala government has not been transparent with its data
