Thiruvananthapuram: A large number of the COVID-19 deaths now reported daily from across the country is from Kerala. Experts are now suggesting that a death audit should be urgently undertaken in the State to find out the reasons for the cause of deaths.

About 1,127 persons died due to COVID-19 in Kerala from January 1 to 30, 2022. But the total tally for the month is 4,546 as many old cases were added to the official list based on the applications given by the relatives of those who had died due to COVID-19 earlier but not accounted for as such officially.

The daily COVID-19 death figures began to rise sharply from January 22. Within the last 10 days, Kerala lost the lives of 649 persons due to COVID-19. But all over the country, the figure was just 3,638. So, almost 18 per cent of the COVID-19 deaths during the period occurred in Kerala.

Extra precaution need of the hour

An extra precaution is needed as the death rate has gone up within one week after the pandemic attack reached its zenith.

Compared to last week, the number of COVID-19 patients lying in the ICU beds in the State went up by 53 percent this week. The number of patients having the support of ventilators in hospitals has gone up by 56 per cent this week, compared to last week.

The main reasons for the higher COVID-19 death rate in Kerala are said to be diabetes and the increased number of cases having lifestyle diseases.

Considering the high death rate figures we can't dismiss the current third wave of the pandemic as one causing mere cold and fever.

Death declaration norms changed

Meanwhile, the Health Department has changed the system of publishing the details of COVID-1 deaths in the official release after a surge in the death rate has been noticed.

The deaths confirmed on a particular day and the deaths reported in the previous days are now given separately. In this way, the government manages to keep the death rate below 15 every day. The truth is that only a very few cases of daily COVID-19 deaths are recorded officially as such on the same day itself.

If you have a glance at the last one week's statistics, you may find that hundreds of people are dying due to COVID-19 on a daily basis in the State.

With 2,09,918 more people testing positive for the disease India's total tally of cases increased to over 4.13 crore, according to Union health ministry data updated on Monday.

The death toll so far has climbed to 4,95,050 with 959 fatalities reported in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.