All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary and former legislator Challa Vamshi Chand Reddy has requested Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan to direct the Health Department to follow the guidelines of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) while recording COVID-19 deaths.
In a letter addressed to the Governor on Monday, Mr. Reddy has drawn the latter’s attention to the ICMR’s emphasis on the importance of proper enumeration of COVID-19 deaths so that the health system is prepared to respond to the needs of the population in its guidelines on COVID.
Citing media reports about the under-reporting of COVID deaths by the State government, Mr. Reddy said there are multiple evidence, including the comments of family members of several deceased coronavirus patients. Even the doctors’ associations have raised the issue with the Inter-Ministerial Central Team.
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‘Bulletin lies’
Although the Health officials have been showing COVID deaths only as below 10 in their daily bulletins for many days, the reality was that a large number of cremations/burials were taking place every day in the State capital with COVID protocols, he alleged.
They were showing deaths of many COVID patients due to their co-morbidities or antecedent cause in the medical certification of cause of death, he added.
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