Assam health and family welfare minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in a recent tweet on Sunday announced that to ascertain the death of a COVID-19 infected patient is indeed due to the viral infection, the Assam Government has constituted a 4-member Death Audit Board.
“Assam Govt has constituted a 4-member Death Audit Board for #COVID19 in accordance with ICMR DELHI guidelines. Officially a death will be attributed to #Covid_19 only after the Board has ascertained it,” Sarma tweeted on Sunday.
The decision came at a time when the COVID-19 virus is continuing its rampant spread across Assam, with many of the areas being once again put under the lockdown cage to arrest the spread of the rampant disease.
Recently, the casualty-meter has also ticked upwards, and the Government figures state that as many as 36 people across the state have died due to the COVID-19.
However, there has been raging debate whether the deaths are indeed due to the COVID-19 or due to any other underlying condition. Addressing the press on Saturday, Biswa Sarma stated that in accordance with the guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), after COVID-19 patients pass away, experts will be assigned to ascertain whether the cause of death is actually the virus and not some other disease.
