Classify deaths causality as Covid-19, co-morbidities, others: Delhi govt orders hospitals
New Delhi, Jan 14 (FN Agency) The Delhi government ordered hospitals to start classifying Covid-19 patients, who died at their facilities, government sources told UNI on Thursday. The hospitals have been directed to categorise each Covid-19 death into three brackets. They have been further told that the fatality reports should come directly from the respective Medical Directors (MD) and Medical Superintendents (MS) of their facilities, the sources added. “The hospitals have been told that from today onwards, all death reports should come with specified categorisation and directly from MS/MD of the facilities. The directions are aimed to ascertain the actual causality of the current strain of SARS-CoV-2, Omicron, and compare the fatality with previous strains, since it is evident that the new strain has caused fewer deaths in other places,” a senior government official told UNI. According to the communique assessed by UNI, the classification of deaths would be based on three categories: (a) Primary cause of death is Covid-19 (b) Primary cause of death is other co-morbidities and Covid-19 finding is incidental (c) Cause of death is other reasons (accident, trauma etc. Meanwhile, the hospitals have started implementing the directions.
Sources said that 31 fatalities were reported on Thursday have been classified under two categories. Of 31, the city government has classified 29 deaths under “primary cause of death is other co-morbidities and Covid-19 finding is incidental”. The remaining two deaths are categorised under “primary cause of death is Covid-19.” The officials said that the latest move will tell the actual causality of the current dominant strain of Covid-19 virus, Omicron, which is believed to be less virulent and fatal than previous ones, but because of its unprecedented transmissivity, it is affecting almost every admission in the hospitals. Officials also said that the latest direction is aimed to highlight the deaths, which the government believes has been a definite causality by Covid-19.
“The classification of deaths will give a bigger picture about the fatality by Omicron. It would help the government in differentiating the “Covid-19 deaths” from the increasing toll, which can be used to allay the panic among the public,” another senior government official told UNI. In a preliminary analysis by the Delhi government, Covid-19 was discovered as an incidental finding in most of the patients, who already suffered from several severe illnesses. The latest analysis of 97 Covid-19 deaths that occurred in the national capital between January 9 and 12 revealed that 70 among them were unvaccinated and suffered from single or multiple co-morbid conditions.