Kerala clears COVID death backlog; causes jump in national tally

Kerala’s COVID-19 death tally went up to 27,766 on Saturday (October 23) after the state health machinery added 563 previous deaths to its tally.

As a result, India’s death count too went by 666 overnight. The sudden rise was mainly because of delayed reporting from Kerala. On Friday (October 22), the nationwide death tally had fallen to just 231. India’s active case load stands at 1,73,728, which is the lowest in last seven months. Currently, active cases constitute just 0.51% of the total case load. India’s total COVID infection tally stands at 3,41,59,562 with 16,326 new cases reported in the last 24 hours.

The state government recently added a backlog of 563 deaths (including 99 deaths that happened on Friday) that had previously gone unreported or were misreported.

The state health department said that 292 of the 563 deaths had happened in the month of June but could not be recorded because of insufficient documentation. The confusion happened because in June districts had started uploading death data online, directly on the Union health ministry portal. The deaths of 172 were reported late when relatives filed appeals for issuing COVID-19 death certificates.

Thiruvananthapuram district (289), Ernakulam (45), Kannur (36), Thrissur (36) and Palakkad (30) reported most of these deaths, which were reported late.

The most such fatalities (289) were reported from the Thiruvananthapuram district, The New Indian Express reported. Deaths were also added in the districts of Ernakulam (45) , Kannur (36), Thrissur (36) and Palakkad (30).

Kerala’s death count now stands at 27,765.

A total of 68,48,417 vaccine doses were administered in the country in the past day. A total of 1,01,30,28,411 vaccine doses have been administered till now since the beginning of the inoculation drive in January.

Also read: 100-crore jabs a milestone, but bigger challenges await us

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a meeting with seven COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers from India on Saturday (October 23). Representatives from seven vaccine makers – Serum Institute of India, Bharat Biotech, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Zydus Cadila, Biological E, Gennova Biopharma and Panacea Biotech attended the meeting, which was held in the backdrop of India reaching the milestone of 100 crore vaccine jabs.

Modi is believed to have asked the companies to help the Centre meet its target of 100% inoculation in India and also help other countries in inoculating their population.