All deaths due to Covid irrespective of comorbidities are to be classified as Covid deaths: Govt

June 20: All Covid-19 deaths, irrespective of co-morbidities, are to be classified as deaths due to the virus, according to guidelines issued on October 9, 2020, the Centre has told the Supreme Court. The only exception, however, could be where there is a clear alternative cause of death, that cannot be attributed to Covid-19, for example, accidental trauma, poisoning, acute myocardial infarction, etc, where Covid-19 is an incidental finding, the Ministry of Home Affairs said in an affidavit.

Any lapse in stating COVID-19 as the cause of demise in a death certificate will have penal consequences for those found responsible, including the certifying doctor, the Centre has warned in the Supreme Court. “It is mandated that any death resulting from COVID-19 shall have to be so certified i.e. as COVID death, failing which, everyone responsible, including the certifying doctor, shall be responsible for penal consequences,” the Centre said in its affidavit on Sunday.

The Supreme Court recently told the Centre that death certificates of those who succumbed to COVID-19 virus often did not reveal that fact. “The death certificates of persons who die from COVID in hospitals show the reason as lung or heart problem or something else,” Justice M.R. Shah had addressed Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, for the Centre, recently.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had released guidelines on October 9, 2020, on the distinction between ‘death audit’ and ‘death certification’.  The Centre said the primary goal of certification of cause of death (death certificate) is to identify and correctly classify all deaths due to a medical condition (e.g. Covid-19) and to eliminate any discrepancy in coding so as to obtain true estimates of the burden of Covid-19 deaths.