Centre to SC: All Covid Deaths should be Certified as Covid Deaths but Rules out Compensation

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, June 20: Amidst reports that some states are fudging the figures of fatalities in Covid to project themselves as good performers in handling the pandemic, the centre has said all Covid deaths irrespective of the place it has taken place must be certified as Covid deaths.

The centre said this in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court late on Saturday night. The centre’s assertion has come amidst media reports that there were huge discrepancies in death figures in several states, particularly in Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Bihar and Delhi.

In its 183-page affidavit, the centre has also promised to take actions against the doctors failing to comply with the directive.

The Centre, however, rejected all suggestions about the government giving compensation to the next of kin of those dying in the pandemic. In its affidavit, it said an amount of Rs four lakhs as compensation could not be given for Covid deaths as it would place an unbearable financial burden on states that are already cash strapped due to lean tax collections in the wake of the lockdown and the tailspin in economy.

The centre’s directive for issuing Covid death certificates comes in the wake of complaints from several children who lost their parents in Corona but were denied the benefits announced by the state governments of aids to the orphans of Coronavirus because the death certificates of their diseased parents did not mention Covid as the cause of death, particularly in the case of those victims who died other than in the hospitals.

So far, only deaths of coronavirus patients that took place in hospitals were certified as Covid, not the ones that happened at home or even at hospital parking lots, leading to a discrepancy in fatality figures that ran into lakhs.

A discrepancy in death figures from this year and in the past has been seen in Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Delhi. Data analysed by the media houses showed 4.8 lakh unexplained excess deaths in these five states alone. Only on Saturday, data from Bihar showed close to 75,000 deaths of unexplained causes in the first five months of this year, almost 10 times the state’s official pandemic death figure.

The government’s decision came after a plea that said families who lost their loved ones to Covid were missing out on compensation already paid by some states as death certificates of victims do not mention Covid as the cause of death.

“Death certificates say death due to lung problem and heart issues. Families of victims have to rush from pillar to post. Is there any uniform policy on issuing death certificates to Corona victims? Or are there any guidelines?” the top court had asked the Centre in a notice.

The Centre’s decision to certify all Covid deaths comes at a time when many states have seen massive unaccounted death figures, raising questions on whether states were undercounting their Covid victims.

Maharashtra has been revising its Covid death numbers to reflect data that came in with some lapse of time. Data from just 12 days resulted in the state’s overall Covid-related deaths zooming by over 8,800. The state has the highest deaths in the country with over 1.17 lakh victims.

On Saturday, the Patna High Court also pulled up the Bihar government and said for whatever reason, the state’s reluctance to publish the actual number of fatalities during the Covid pandemic is uncalled for and not protected by law.

In the scathing observation, the court, quoting a 1975 Supreme Court order, said: “To cover with a veil of secrecy, the common routine business, is not in the interest of the public. Such secrecy can seldom be legitimately desired.”

India has reported over 3.85 lakh Covid deaths so far — a number seen to increase further as states prep for a third wave of Covid. It could be man times higher if the “unexplained” deaths were finally attributed to Covid, the government had always maintained that the country had witnessed one of the lowest mortality rates from the disease compared to even the most developed countries.

But images of overflowing crematoriums and graveyards, of thousands of bodies buried in the sandbanks of Ganga and flowing down the river in April and May, made headlines across the world particularly raising suspicions of considerable under-reporting of deaths in the second wave of the disease.