THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala has recorded the highest all-cause mortality in a decade in 2021 with 25,000 more deaths registered than the previous year, an increase many health officials attribute to the impact of the second Covid-19 wave, the full extent of which the state government has been officially reluctant to admit.
According to civil registration data of the local-self government department, the state recorded 2.69 lakh deaths in 2021, a 10% rise from the all-cause mortality in 2020.
Health officials associated with Covid management said the unprecedented rise in all-cause mortality was driven by the Delta variant during the second wave. "There has not been a significant change in other causes of mortality in 2021. The Covid second wave could be the dominating factor for such a steep rise. Even when we look at 2019 and 2021, the difference is around 5,000, which is far less than what we had anticipated," an official said.
The civil registration system doesn't include data of 309 panchayats and the death figures would go up further if they are also added. The vital statistics documents being released for the respective years by the department of economics and statistics show a difference of 3,000-6,000 deaths in terms of cumulative figures.
Except for three districts — Wayanad, Kannur and Kasaragod — the number of deaths rose from the previous year in all districts in 2021, with the difference ranging from 1,000 to nearly 5,000. Ernakulam recorded the highest rise -- 4,870 deaths -- while it was 4,000 and more in Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur and Kozhikode.
A technical paper brought out by the health department had shown that the all-cause mortality had dropped in Kerala during the pandemic's early phase. According to it, there was a 11.1% reduction in absolute number of deaths in 2020 when compared to 2019, going by the registration of vital events data.
As for non-Covid causes, the number of deaths from communicable diseases was 145 in 2021. Data available till October 2021 show that Kerala recorded 2,738 accident deaths as against 2,979 in 2020. Deaths from communicable diseases and accidents had decreased in 2020 and 2021 when compared to the pre-Covid years.
The Covid death registration in local bodies had picked up pace during the second wave, going from 405 Covid deaths a month to over 10,000 death registrations in May 2021, according to RTI data. Between March and May, the registration figures put the number for three months at 12,564.
The cumulative Covid death figures in 2020 was 3,095, which touched 47,794 by December 31, 2021. The reconciliation of death data had recorded a 15-fold rise in Covid death figures within a year.
