Thiruvananthapuram: The dependents of more than 15,000 persons in Kerala whose names were excluded from the official COVID-19 death list earlier have now submitted the applications to the district-level expert committee for inclusion of the names left out.

So far, the Kerala Government added 6,209 persons in the death list after the introduction of the new exercise. All these cases were excluded earlier by the government though there were documents to prove that all such cases were genuine COVID-19 deaths. The dependents of those who find a name in the list are eligible for a compensation of Rs 50,000.

The Kerala Government is also processing the applications filed by the dependents of those who were dead within 100 days of the COVID-19 infliction as per the Supreme Court's directive. About 1,000 such cases have already been added to the list.

With the revision, the total number of COVID-19 fatalities in the state rose to 34,621 as per the official estimates. Thus, the death rate due to COVID-19 has gone up to 0.66 percent from 0.52 percent.

If other pending applications are accepted, the total number in the death list will cross 40,000. The higher number of applications were received from Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Kollam, Malappuram and Kottayam.

The State Government decided to revise the list of the dead persons after it came to public realm with clear proof that the COVID-19 deaths reported at the district-level earlier were concealed at the State-level, leading to the exclusion of many genuine cases from the list. It was from October 22 that the government started adding old COVID-19 deaths to the official list.

The District Medical Officers (DMOs) had earlier given reports to the government that above 7,000 COVID death cases reported at the district-level were excluded from the final list published at the State-level. Instead of adding all these cases to the list together, the government is now adding the left out names on a daily basis.

Districts and Number of Applications

  • Thiruvananthapuram - 2,358
  • Alappuzha - 2,000
  • Ernakulam - 2,000
  • Kollam - 1,951
  • Malappuram - 1,508
  • Kottayam -1,505
  • Kannur - 1344
  • Pathanamthitta - 1088
  • Palakkad - 694
  • Kasaragod - 400
  • Kozhikode - 295
  • Idukki - 126
  • Thrissur - 67
  • Wayanad - 38

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