Increase In Covid Death Rate Despite Drop In Weekly Fatalities In West Bengal, Controversy Brews

Bengal showed a 1.81% increase in the death rate between June 22 and July 16. Earlier it was 1.71 percent on June 21. But in the bulletin of the state government, the death due to Corona has reduced.

Kolkata: The Supreme Court has recently heard a petition seeking compensation for the families of those who died as a result of corona.
The petitioners demanded that the Center should provide ex-gratia payment. Referring to Section 12 of the Disaster Management Act 2005 and the notification of 2015, 4 lakh should be given to each of the relatives of the victims.

According to official data, West Bengal has shown a 1.5-fold increase in the death rate between June 22 and July 16 (average 1.81%), as against 1.71 percent on June 21. But according to the bulletin issued by the Department of Health and Family Welfare, West Bengal, the weekly corona positivity rate and the number of deaths due to the infection reported in the state have subsequently come down. 

In Bengal, the weekly positivity rate during the week of June 18-24 was 4.04 percent. Later in the week of July 9-15, it came down to 1.78 percent.

Compared to the increase in the death rate, the average daily cases reported during the week of July 9-15 have come down to 912. During 18-24 june, it was 2148. The number of deaths recorded has also come down significantly. There have been 103 deaths in the week of 9-15 July from a total of 334 deaths in the week of June 18-24.

According to former cabinet minister and TMC leader Madan Mitra, West Bengal is in a very good position. He further accused BJP of conspiracy. He said, "I think this is another ploy of the BJP as if the motive was to defeat us in the elections. After that they decided not to give us funding or vaccinations and let people die like this.”

The TMC leader further said that an inquiry committee will be formed to probe the matter. He said, “I request Subrata Bakshi, Partha Chatterjee and Didi to keep a watch on every hospital. There will be an inquiry committee soon."

According to CPIM leader Fuad Halim, the government is manipulating the figures even after the compensation petition in the Supreme Court. He said, "The way the government has prepared the data... the tendency of the administration to manipulate it continuously is to take advantage. In fact, we have seen that the number of Covid casualties and sufferings are out of the figure. It's always been a problem, as we are moving from second wave to third wave."

According to the bulletin issued by the department, for the first time after March 2021, several districts including Kolkata had reported zero Covid deaths on a single day in the last week. The Center is hesitant to make the commitment. According to official figures, considering the death toll (about 4 lakh) due to corona, it has been argued that payment of 4 lakh rupees to those families may not be practical.