West Bengal: 57 COVID-19 patients died; 39 due to co-morbidities
After central teams asked the West Bengal government about the system of declaration of COVID-19 deaths by an auditing committee, the state on Friday admitted that 57 patients had died in the state. However, the state government said that in 39 of the 57 fatalities, COVID-19 was an "incidental finding" and the deaths occurred due to co-morbidities. Here are more details.
'57 deaths audited by expert panel; 18 due to COVID-19'
At a press conference on Friday, West Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha said that 57 deaths were audited by an expert committee formed by the state government earlier this month. The panel found that 18 deaths were due to the coronavirus disease and the rest were due to "severe co-morbid conditions" where COVID-19 was simply an "incidental finding," Sinha said.
Bengal had reported 15 deaths till the press conference
Until the presser, West Bengal had only confirmed 15 deaths. The state has reported 385 active cases as of Friday evening and 103 recoveries. Since the expert panel was formed, the death toll in the state has been updated six times over three weeks, with the tally increasing by 2-3 deaths each time. When the panel was formed, only three deaths had been confirmed.
39 deaths occurred due to kidney failure, cerebrovascular-accident, etc.
According to The Print, the expert panel's report submitted Friday attributed the 39 deaths to "cardiomyopathy with chronic kidney disease, renal failure, cerebrovascular-accident, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, multi-organ failure in type-II diabetes and so on." When asked if this classification was in line with guidelines issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research, Sinha said that he could not comment.
Sinha said: 'We are bureaucrats; we cannot comment'
"There are doctors in the expert committee. They had taken up cases of death that happened even before the committee was formed. The medical reasoning and cause of death can only be determined by doctors. We are bureaucrats and we cannot comment on that."
IMCT had raised questions over expert committee
Sinha's admission came mere hours after an Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) probed him for answers about the formation and functioning of the expert committee. The IMCT—headed by Apurva Chandra—asked for the government order to constitute the committee, case records of all COVID-19 fatalities attributed to other causes by the committee, the time taken by the committee to review each case, etc.
Here are some other questions raised by the IMCT
The IMCT had also asked if Bengal is ready to ramp up daily testing to 2,500-5,000 since the state describes itself to be at the "beginning of the curve." It took note of "chaotic" scenes at Bangur hospital where there was "no social distancing in the waiting area." It also reported a delay in shifting deceased patients to mortuaries, lack of ventilator beds, etc.
IMCT demands proof over implementation of insurance scheme for medics
There are allegations that the state government is not implementing the Centre's scheme, such as the Rs. 50 lakh insurance to healthcare workers. The state government has announced its own Rs. 10 lakh insurance scheme and said it has allowed workers to choose between the two. The IMCT has also asked for a government order in this regard.
