In a bid to resist the allegations of underreporting of Covid deaths, Kerala government has started publishing list of Covid victims from Saturday.
The daily Covid bulletin published on Saturday contained the names, place and age of the 135 Covid deaths confirmed in the last 24 hours.
Health Minister Veena George herself had raised concerns of privacy involved in publishing the names of Covid victims on Friday, hours before she decided to publish the names. Earlier, the state had witnessed rows over Covid patients details being leaked out.
Health department sources said that though the privacy concern was the major hindrance so far in publishing the identity of Covid victims, with the Supreme Court directing the government to give compensation to victims, many people seems to be now least bothered about privacy.
Meanwhile, there were reports that the health department also stared a process of reviewing many deaths that were not recorded as Covid deaths citing other comorbid factors. The district medical officers were learnt to have been instructed to review all suspicious cases also.
Though the minister earlier said that only specific cases would be reviewed based on requests, the opposition Congress demanded total review of all suspected cases.
Already the state health department received scores of requests to review death reports. Moreover, many earlier cases were also kept in abeyance owing to missing of key data like Specimen Referral Form identification number (SRF ID), which is generated when a person is tested Covid positive.