Karnataka government to audit actual Covid deaths in January

In a major cleanup of Covid death data, the state government has asked all 31 districts to send death audit reports of 645 deaths that happened in January. This is to remove those cases from the third wave’s toll in which Covid was only an incidental finding and not the primary cause of death.

So far, districts have audited 626 deaths. These include 13 paediatric cases and one of a pregnant woman. To prevent artificial inflation of Covid case fatality rate, the state has also restricted the scope of testing for the dead.

To know the actual number of deaths in the third wave, the state health commissioner has also suggested to the government to have a state audit team to collate observations across the state. The team comprises forensic medicine doctors, intensivists, pulmonologists and paediatricians, from both public and private sectors.

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State health commissioner D Randeep told DH, “The minute we take a swab of anyone living or a dead body, it has to be reported to ICMR. After reporting the Covid positive status, the initial cause of death analysis takes place in 24 hours and that is reported in the bulletin. But the audit is completed only a week or 10 days down the line. The actual findings come there.”

In the forms that the death audit committees are required to provide, there are both primary and secondary causes of death to be filled in. It also includes a verbal autopsy form.

“If Covid figures in the secondary cause, we can conclusively say that patient was brought to the hospital for some other reason and when the sample was taken for whatever reason (like an elective surgery), he/she was found to be Covid positive. This will come out clearly once we receive the reports of 31 districts,” he said.

Cardiologist and Covid Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) member Dr C N Manjunath told DH, “If patients are admitted for non-Covid emergencies like heart attack, acute kidney failure, stroke, abdominal, liver or gallbladder problems, and they test Covid positive, they should be treated as non-Covid deaths.

“If the patient has developed pneumonia or septecemic shock, then we can understand. In massive heart attacks, immediate cause of death is heart failure, and precipitating factor may be Covid,” he said.

“We are overestimating Covid deaths. Those who have died by suicide and have tested Covid positive cannot be treated Covid deaths. Also, unless Covid is cited as primary cause of death, families cannot claim Covid compensation,” the doctor said. He said that when 95% of patients in the third wave, unlike in the second wave, haven’t even suffered a dip in oxygen saturation, barring symptoms like sore throat, fever and headache, separating contributory factors to death becomes all the more important.

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