Thiruvananthapuram: A section of the officials of the Kerala Health Department are upset over the initiation of disciplinary action against a few officers for lapses with regard to the preparation of the revised COVID-19 death list.
The Health Department issued a show cause notice the other day to the District Medical Officers (DMOs) of Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Thrissur, and Kozhikode after 527 death cases, which were earlier part of the official COVID-19 death list, were found repeated in the list prepared as per the new criteria.
Those who are close to the DMOs alleged that the mistake occurred due to mass entering of many death cases, which were all hushed up earlier by the higher officials, including the State Health Secretary.
They alleged that the DMOs were made scapegoats for the data entry mistake that occurred due to the mass reporting of deaths. Through the employee organisations to which they belong, the officials have raised their protest against the disciplinary action.
Health Minister Veena Geroge had told the State Assembly that 7,023 more deaths had to be included in the official list as per the new criteria approved by the Supreme Court.
But when the new list was prepared, the number of newly added deaths crossed 8,500. It was later found in the scrutiny that 527 death cases were given a double entry. This led to the initiation of disciplinary action against the respective DMOs.
Employees allege that it was the State Health Secretary who took the lead to hush up many death cases which were correctly reported earlier at the district-level. They pointed out that it was the office of the Health Secretary which pruned the data given from the districts. But after facing criticism over such a cover-up move, the Health Department was forced to report many COVID-19 deaths together, leading to the committing of such an error.
COVID- deaths cross 60,000
The COVID-19 deaths in Kerala have crossed the 60,000-mark since the outbreak of the pandemic in early 2020. The deaths, which were not included in the official list earlier, are now being added as per the new guideline of the Supreme Court.
On Wednesday alone, almost 627 deaths were included in the list, taking the total number of COVID deaths to 60,793.