The Jharkhand government has asked all the districts in the state to identify hospitals that reported unusually high number of deaths from April 1 to May 21 and conduct a thorough audit of the fatalities in order to get an idea of the various circumstances that led to the death of patients.

The health department on Sunday addressed a letter to deputy commissioners of all 24 districts in Jharkhand asking them to identify such hospitals and begin the audit. It suggested that district administrations form teams comprising officials from the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), epidemiologists, members of World Health Organisation and civil society to conduct the audit.

“Even private hospitals that have reported unusually high number of deaths during this period can be selected for the audit if the concerned deputy commissioner finds it necessary. It would be a detailed study including the cause of death, medicines administered, comorbid conditions and other factors,” said Dr Siddharth Tripathi, the nodal officer for the IEC wing of the health department. “The audit is not only for Covid deaths, but also for deaths that occurred due to reasons other than Covid-19,” he added.

The state government has already been surveying rural households in Jharkhand to gather data of deaths caused during the pandemic. The latest directive, however, specifically aims at auditing deaths reported in hospitals, officials said.

During the ongoing survey, the government has found that more than 25,000 deaths were reported in rural areas between April 1 and May 31, when the second wave of Covid-19 wreaked havoc in Jharkhand. The figure includes Covid as well as non-Covid deaths. The state, however, is yet to officially release the figures.

As per data compiled by the National Health Mission (NHM), as many as 5,046 Jharkhand residents have died due to Covid-19 so far. Most of the deceased, officials said, died during treatment in hospitals. However, data on the total deaths reported during this period was not available yet.

A highly placed source in the health department said that some hospitals had reported a higher number of deaths compared to other hospitals in the district. While some hospitals may have reported more deaths as critical patients were referred to these hospitals from different parts of the state, the audit will give a clearer picture of the various causes of deaths reported during the second wave of the pandemic, he said.