7,000 more deaths included in Covid list, list renewed after strong objections

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government has renewed the list of deaths due to Covid. The new list has included 7,000 more deaths. Health Minister Veena George said the death toll may have been dropped from the old list due to lack of records and the health department itself had found this and published. The minister said the death toll was not hidden and financial aid would be ensured to those eligible.

The opposition had earlier slammed the government for not mentioning the actual number of deaths. The government decided to update the number of deaths after the opposition came to the fore against them for not showing the exact deaths. The main criticism was that thousands were excluded from the list at a time when the centre had announced a financial assistance of Rs 50,000 to the kin of those who died of the pandemic. The government has been accused of hiding the number of deaths when it said it had been providing data online since June 16. The opposition also criticized Kerala's claims of better defense, lower TPR and lower mortality as hollow.