A fifth of Covid-19 deaths listed in Kerala on appeal of families

Kerala's Covid-19 death count shows that about a fifth of them came to be recognised after family members of deceased persons raised an appeal with health authorities. Out of 36,087 deaths due to the infection, 7404 had been added on appeal from family members, according to Kerala's Covid-19 dashboard data,

The state has been reporting a larger number of deaths since August by way of reporting backlog deaths, the official data reveals, raising questions over the way it was reporting the Covid-19 deaths earlier.

In August, the state reported about 27% of India's Covid-19 deaths, a big jump from previous months. In September, it accounted for about 45% of the nationwide deaths. Its Covid-19 deaths made up 64.7% of the country's numbers in October.


The death trends, analysed by experts and closely monitored by the health authorities in Delhi, raise serious questions over Kerala's claims that its deft clinical management of the infection was responsible for lowest Covid-19 death numbers in the country though its daily case count was high. For instance, in April, while the southern state accounted for 6.2% of the country's cases, its corresponding share in deaths was only 1.4%. In the following month, the trend continued as the state contributed 10.6% of the country's cases but only 2.8% deaths.

However, the picture has changed drastically over the past three months.

Since October 22, with the addition of backlog deaths, Kerala's authorities have reconciled about 6,500 deaths in the name of backlog deaths in addition to reporting daily deaths.