After Times of India came out with a report on Wednesday about mismatch in COVID deaths between Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) and the state’s Department of Public Health (DPH), a nine member committee headed by Dr. P. Vadivelan, Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine has been formed to reconcile the actual number of COVID deaths in the state.
As of June 8, the civic body had reported 460 deaths while DPH showed only 224, a difference of 236 deaths.
Going by the GCC data, the death rate stands at 1.5% as opposed to 0.7% mortality rate claimed by the state government.
The committee will compare mortuary reports, hospital data, and death certificates to get clarity on the city’s mortality rate. In light of this, the GCC has already started collating data from cremation/burial grounds.
The mismatch is attributed to miscommunication between different agencies and failing to update data on a daily basis.
T.S. Selvavinayagam has stated in an official communication to the Commissioner of GCC that all COVID19 deaths from March to till date be shared and added that all COVID19 deaths be shared on a daily basis to the DPH by identified officials such as city health officer.
In a report published by The News Minute, a committee member from DPH was quoted saying that private hospitals that fall under the GCC are directly informing the zonal officers of the Corporation about deaths and not the DPH. He said that the problem was with figures from private hospitals and home deaths as correct figures from government hospitals get reported since they come under the DPH’s jurisdiction.
The committee member adds that the civic body does not have the experience or expertise of handling a pandemic. “The priority of the civic body’s health department is only development and sanitation. This is the first time they are handling disease control and fumbled.”
However, a GCC official had reportedly said that they have no role in declaring COVID19 deaths and is not the corporation’s fault. He said that the DPH and Directorate of Medical Education collect reports directly from hospitals about deaths and assess the situation and decide if the death was due to COVID 19 or not. Regarding discrepancies in the data, he said that it could have been persons who were discharged and then died or people who and then later their test results emerge COVID positive.
This data discrepancy is not present in other parts of the state as it is handled by the DPH directly. Since the GCC is autonomous, the DPH is unable to get full control over the body. The committee member notes that either the GCC has to strengthen their system or let the DPH take over.