Committees to monitor Covid deaths: Govt to High Court

CUTTACK: The State government on Monday informed the Orissa High Court that it had constituted district-level committees to monitor Covid-19 deaths.The court was hearing the issue of possible under-counting of Covid-19 deaths in the State. The State counsel informed the court that the district-level panels to monitor the deaths had been formed on the basis of written note of instruction received from the government.  However, the division bench comprising Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice Savitri Ratho directed the counsel to make the submission by way of an affidavit and adjourned the matter to July 20.

As per the submission by the State counsel, district level committees, constituted to review Covid-19 deaths, were supposed to audit the quality of care at facilities and review deaths of positive cases and suspected patients at government and private hospitals in the districts or corporation areas. The panels were also supposed to examine the full medical records of the patients to strengthen the system and improve response to save lives. 

While declining to entertain a PIL seeking direction for a special audit of Covid-19 deaths in the State on grounds of non-adherence to rules on June 23, the court took up the discrepancy in deaths in Nayagarh as was alleged in the petition. The court took up the issue relating to under-counting of Covid 19 deaths and tagged it with another pending PIL concerning issues incidental to the outbreak of the pandemic.