Kerala’s cumulative COVID-19 toll crossed the 50,000 mark on Tuesday to touch 50,053. The current case fatality rate (CFR) in the State is 0.94%.
The State’s claim to the lowest COVID-19 CFR of 0.3% to 0.4%, something that set it apart from the rest of the country, began falling apart since October last, after the authorities began the death reconciliation exercise.
The State was forced to initiate a death reconciliation exercise following the Supreme Court’s intervention and a directive to all State governments to ensure ex-gratia payment to all families who lost their relatives to the pandemic.
The wide disparities in the CFR between districts had been brought forth by many public health experts. They had appealed to the government to rectify the anomalies in reporting COVID deaths.
The death reconciliation exercise has now added a whopping 19,343 deaths to the State’s official toll and this constitutes 39% of the current cumulative toll of 50,053.
The process is continuing and with over 10,000 appeals for inclusion on the official toll list still pending, the proportion of under-counted could rise further.
