Siddaramaiah alleges under reporting of COVID-19 deaths in Karnataka

PTI, Sep 30, 2020, 6:05 PM IST

Bengaluru: Alleging under-reporting of COVID-19 deaths, Leader of Opposition in Karnataka Assembly Siddaramaiah on Wednesday accused the BJP government in the State of trying to ‘cover-up’ its gross mismanagement and negligence.

In a series of tweets, the former Chief Minister urged the State government for more transparency and accountability, as he pointed out that deaths reported at a hospital in Kolar district last week did not get reflected in COVID-19 bulletin.

“There are serious under-reporting issues with respect to Covid-19 deaths. Jalappa hospital has reported 4 deaths between 19th Sep, 12 PM to 20th Sep, 12 PM. But, the bulletin on 20 Sept has reported 0 deaths in Kolar,” Siddaramaiah tweeted sharing pictures of the report.

He pointed out that the same hospital has reported one death between 12 PM on Sep 20 to 12 PM the next day, but the bulletin on September 21 has reported 0 deaths in Kolar.

“What is the govt trying to hide by underreporting? Is it your failure?” he asked, tagging Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, Health Minister B Sriramulu and Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar in a tweet.

“Underreporting will have serious implications on the preparedness of the stakeholders providing health care and also on the behaviour of the people. Yediyurappa govt is trying to cover up its gross mismanagement and negligence. There has to be more transparency and accountability,” he added.

During the recently concluded monsoon session of the legislative assembly, opposition Congress legislators had made similar charges of suppressing data against the government, which the Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar had rejected saying ICMR has complemented Karnataka for providing correct data.

The Minister had made it clear that nobody is giving wrong numbers and that when it comes to testing, deaths and treatment, the Karnataka government was giving proper data.

As of September 29 evening, cumulatively 5.92 lakh COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, which includes 8,777 deaths and 4,76,378 discharges, the health department said in its bulletin.

Minister Sudhakar had on Tuesday noted that the death rate in the state was at 1.5 per cent and measures were being taken to reduce this to less than 1 per cent.