Hours after the Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) asked for details of the procedure followed by the committee of doctors from West Bengal to audit COVID-19 deaths and sought an interaction with it, the West Bengal government released the number of COVID-19 deaths the audit committee has looked into so far.
Also read: No transparency in West Bengal
The audit committee looked into 57 deaths and has so far confirmed 18 of them died of COVID -19, State’s Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha said on Friday. All the 57 had tested positive for COVID-19. “This Committee examined all the relevant documents sent by the hospitals concerned and have found 18 deaths due to COVID-19 infections,” a letter released by the West Bengal government said. “The remaining 39 deaths were due to severe co-morbid conditions which were the immediate cause of death, and COVID-19 was incidental finding,” said the letter signed by B.R. Satpati, a former director of government health services and a member of the audit committee.
When it was pointed out by journalist that this information had come after the IMCT wrote to the West Bengal government, Mr. Sinha said what mattered was the information the State shared and nothing else. Responding to questions on the IMCT letters addressed to him during the day, Mr. Sinha said the committee had come to cooperate with State. “We are like an open book,” he said. The State government had nothing to hide.
“Nobody has come here as inspectors or auditors. It is also not that we are passing or failing some exam. The only exam we have to pass is what people think... whether we have been able to provide them services,” the Chief Secretary said.
Meanwhile, 51 new cases were reported in the State in the past 24 hours, taking the number of active cases to 385. The new cases were reported from seven districts in south Bengal, but half of them (51%) were from Kolkata alone.
The State has conducted 943 tests. The total number of samples tested so far is 8933 and 103 infected persons have recovered.
