Bhubaneswar: In the wake of the controversy surrounding the alleged concealing of Covid deaths in the State, the Odisha Government on Tuesday sought to clarify by stating that the death figures updated by the government every day is not based on the fatalities reported on a particular day.
The Director of DMET (Directorate of Medical Education and Training), Dr CBK Mohanty, clarified that the number of fatalities is announced following audit at multiple levels. The number of deaths (figure) reported everyday is not of a particular day’s fatality count, he added.
Asserting that government has not concealed any data regarding Covid fatalities, Mohanty said that there was confusion over the Covid and non-covid deaths earlier. Following a direction from the government, audit on daily casualties was conducted to confirm the categories of death, he added.
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“Doctors were busy treating patients during peak period of Covid 19. After the cases started falling, the health professionals made audit of the Covid deaths,” he maintained.
“When inflow of patients increased during the second wave of the pandemic, doctors emphasised on saving precious lives by providing them the necessary treatment which was a time consuming process. During treatment, many of the patients slipped into severity while some succumbed. Earlier, there was a confusion to find out the cause of death. Some people died due to other reasons even after getting infected with Covid. However, the confusion got over after we made an audit on the deaths,” Mohanty claimed.
Meanwhile, the Director, Family Welfare, Dr Bijay Panigrahy also echoed similar views. He said that every district has their own expert committee which makes audit of Covid death and report to the government, based on which the government announces the daily fatalities. “So, these are the audited death report and not that of a particular day,” Panigrahy said.
Senior government officials have informed that the health department has set a target to complete Covid vaccination process within four to five months, Panigrahy informed.
As many as 1, 24, 91,857 beneficiaries have been vaccinated so far in the State. Health professionals and nurses are being imparted special training to carry out the inoculation drive for pregnant women. Efforts are on to start the drive as early as possible, he added.
He admitted that though the single-day infection in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar has decreased drastically, the figure is still higher than other districts. The government has focused on testing, tracing and surveillance in regions having high infections rate, the senior official pointed out.