The Supreme Court on Wednesday, June 30, directed the Centre to certify the deaths related to COVID-19 complications as deaths due to coronavirus.
In addition, people who died within two to three months after testing positive for COVID-19 will be counted as "death due to the coronavirus".
The Supreme Court has directed the Centre to incorporate these benchmarks in its guidelines for death certificates in case of COVID-19 deaths.
Meanwhile, the bench of justices Ashok Bhushan and MR Shah also directed the appropriate authority to frame a “simplified procedure or guidelines” for issuing an official document or death certificate to the family of those who died due to coronavirus.
This document should state the exact cause of death as “Death due to Covid-19”, added the bench.
The court ordered that the guidelines should also lay down the grievance redressal process for the families of coronavirus patients in case the death certificates do not show COVID-19 as the “exact cause of death”.
The court had repeatedly observed throughout the proceedings that persons affected by the virus can die due to other complications. Unfortunately, the judges noted in its verdict that the guidelines issued by the Centre and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) did not specifically deal with this aspect.
The procedure followed by states and union territories in registering deaths came under the judicial scanner in two public interest litigations filed by advocates Reepak Kansal and Gaurav Kumar Bansal.
Also Read: COVID-19: Mumbai Seeing Increase in Deaths Due to Weakened Immunity After 12-15 Day Hospitalization
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