A 73 year old male, fully vaccinated and with no travel history was declared dead today at 3:30am, while he was undergoing treatment for post COVID pneumonia and other co-morbid conditions, viz. Diabetes Mellitus, Hypertension and Hypothyroidism. He was diagnosed with carrying the Omicron variant, as per genome sequencing reports received from NIV, Pune.

The CMHO Udaipur office reported the death of this COVID patient admitted in the MB General Hospital, Udaipur since 15 December after his sample tested COVID positive.  He was suffering from fever, cough and rhinitis, hence admitted. The deceased, who was in hospital since he was found to be COVID positive, was reported to be symptomatic with post COVID pneumonia even after testing negative twice on 21 and 25 December.

After testing positive on 15 December, his sample along with other patients was sent to NIV Pune. The report from Pune was received on 25 December, where 3 patients included the 73 male who died today were reported to have been carrying the Omicron variant. The other two patients were asymptomatic and fully vaccinated and since they had tested negative twice after 15 December, were declared negative.

The reporting, which was showing one COVID patient admitted in hospital since 15 December (the deceased), is now showing none admitted to hospital, while the death count remains the same. The number adjusted has been allocated to cured patients, which does not seem to be the case. Are we going back to the earlier sequence of mismanagement of reported numbers? As per the CMHO office, they only report audited numbers given to them and are not responsible for the accuracy of the numbers reported.

The question here is, when this patient was being declared as a COVID Active Patient in hospital since 25 December, then why is his death being attributed only to co-morbidities, even when he was still suffering from post COVID Pneumonia?