Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Saturday directed officials to audit every death related to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in the state and analyse the reasons behind them.
Rawat gave the directions while evaluating the pandemic situation in the state during a meeting with all the 13 district magistrates through a video conference.
The Himalayan state reported 21 Covid-19 related deaths with 1,759 patients till Saturday evening. Only one of these 21 deaths has been attributed directly to Covid-19, according to health officials.
“Every Covid-19 related death will be audited along with a thorough analysis of the reasons behind the death. Also, if a patient dies only after 24 hours of testing positive, then it would be considered that there was some laxity in the surveillance,” Rawat said.
During the evaluation meeting, he expressed his concerns over some reports of protests by people in certain places of the state against cremating those who died of Covid-19 at crematoriums in their area.
“It is really unfortunate that there have been some incidents where people have protested against the cremation of people who died of Covid-19, fearing it would spread the infection,” Rawat said.
“It is not true because the cremation of such bodies are done as per the Centre’s guidelines on the same under which the body is first sanitised. It is then put in a sanitised bag or cloth and then taken for cremation by trained people and not the family members to ensure the infection doesn’t spread,” he said.
“I humbly request the people to allow respectful cremation of the deceased and not create any problem in it.”
The chief minister also directed officials to resume the working of electric crematoriums in Haldwani and Haridwar apart from announcing a new one in Dehradun.
Rawat, while taking cognizance of an alleged suicide by a 19-year-old man in a Dehradun-based quarantine centre on Friday, suspended the nodal officer and the doctor responsible for monitoring the quarantine centre.
The man from Jabalpur had allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself inside the quarantine centre. No suicide note was found from the spot and reasons behind his suicide is not known.
It was found during a probe that he was recruited as an AC assistant in the Indian Railways in Jabalpur and was in Baroda during the lockdown. He last spoke to his family members on June 2 and didn’t inform them about going to Dehradun.
“Primarily it has been found that the officials who were responsible for the quarantine centre, were at fault in the incident. Hence, I ordered their suspension with immediate effect and initiated an inquiry into the whole incident,” said Rawat.
