Chennai: The Arappor Iyakkam NGO in Chennai reveals that there is possibility of massive undercounted or underreporting of COVID deaths in Tamil Nadu
According to the data of state government only 30,000 people have died of coronavirus in Tamil Nadu, while the real numbers might be 8 times higher than the given figures.
A report claims that the figure Covid victims shown in the data is less and the actual number could be estimated to 8 times higher. On the other hand, the state government has denied this report and said that there is no reason for the government to undercount the figure. A Chennai based NGO Arappor Iyakkam has revealed this report while analysing data from 6 government hospitals in the state. The NGO has claimed that there have been 13.6 times more deaths in these hospitals than the government shown in its data. According to news sources, NGO’s claim is based on the death certificates issued by the six institutions they conducted the analysis including Rajaji Hospital, Coimbatore Hospital.
Jayaraman Venkatesan, the NGO coordinator, said that data from April-May 2021 to April-May 2019 and 2020 was compared in the study done in these hospitals. As per the state government's death registry, a total of 11,669 death certificates have been issued in April and May 2021. In this, the bulletin showed, 3,009 deaths in April and 8,690 in May. However, the actual figure is 13.6 times higher than the number deaths given in government data. Jayaraman claimed that the Tamil Nadu government has spoken of 863 deaths, while the actual figure is much higher.