Health minister Veena George's angry and dismissive response to the opposition's charge of suppressed COVID-19 fatality rate in Kerala threatened to push the Assembly into pandemonium on Wednesday.
However, opposition leader VD Satheesan reiterated the UDF's unconditional support to the goverment's COVID fight.
He told the ruling side that they should not consider the concerns raised by the opposition as a criticism of the government. "We are only bringing certain issues to the notice of the government," he said.
The health minister's belligerent stand took place during an adjournment motion moved by Muslim League MLA M K Muneer on the COVID issue. He too expressed full support but pointed out two major issues. One, he said the government should anticipate a third COVID wave and prepare accordingly. He said paediatric ICUs and ventilators should be kept ready as children would be the most affected in the third wave. He also added that there should not be a situation like during the second wave when people were running around for beds.
Two, he said that there should not be under-reporting of deaths. "We should not attempt to take credit for our handling of COVID by artificially keeping our death rates low, " Muneer said.
The health minister said both observations were baseless and said they were attempts to undermine the hard work done by the health workers. This led to angry and loud responses from the opposition. Shouting over the noise, a combative Veena asked: "Is this the unconditional support you have offered."
She said COVID deaths were certified on the basis of the guidelines issued by the World Health Organization. The opposition charge was that COVID deaths were decided by a management committee that had not seen the patient. The health minister insisted that the management committee functioned on the basis of WHO guidelines.
COVID deaths are certified on the basis of the guidelines issued by the World Health Organization.
Veena George, Health Minister
The opposition leader, during his turn, said there was nothing wrong in what Dr Muneer had said. "During this second wave there were many instances when oxygen beds were not available even when MLAs called up private hospitals for people from their constituencies. A person for whom I had tried for a bed died two days after I tried and failed to get a bed for him, " Satheesan said.
That is why, he said it was important for the state to prepare for the third wave.
About death rates, Satheesan said there were serious doubts about the methodology adopted for deciding on COVID deaths. He said many people who had died of post-COVID complications like bleeding in the brain, cardiac arrest and stroke were not registered as COVID deaths.
He gave the example of DYFI leader Biju who died of cardiac arrest a few days after he tested negative last year. "He did not die after a jackfruit fell on him, " Satheesan said. This was a sarcastic response to Veena's earlier remark in the House that a person who died after a jackfruit fell on his head and had tested positive at the hospital could not be considered a COVID death.
"Even when people die of Black Fungus, it is not recorded as COVID death, " the opposition leader said.
As yet another example of faulty death reporting, Satheesan compared death figures in Thiruvananthapuram and Malappuram districts. Thiruvananthapuram has 1.25 lakh cases and Malappuram 1.41 lakh cases, an excess of over 18,000 cases. "But the deaths in Thiruvananthapuram (585) is five times more than in Malappuram (114), " Satheesan said.
The opposition leader said that the death protocol followed by Kerala violates ICMR guidelines.
