Amid the exponential COVID-19 cases and the row of availability of beds in the hospitals in Chennai to treat the COVID-19 patients, the report has now shockingly revealed that 236 virus-infected deaths in Chennai weren't recorded in the state's register of the death toll, which has become a huge discrepancy spurring up the questions on the transparency shown by the government. 

The mismatch in the count would if added currently, take the state's death toll past 500 and it would also contribute to the sharpest rise in the fatality rate, which the government has been asserting that it has a low mortality rate compared to the rest of the Indian states. According to the reports, about 460 people have died to the virus in Chennai till June 8, which was double the rate of what the state had reported. 

The revelation has come after the authorities of the Directorate of Public Health (DPH) have inspected the Chennai Corporation's death register maintained by the health officer of the city on Tuesday in which they discovered that the city's register has recorded 236 more deaths than what was recorded in the state's register.

According to the state health department's official press release, Chennai has recorded 224 COVID-19 deaths till June 8 and if the omitted numbers added to the list, the city would have recorded 460 deaths and it would have taken the state's mortality rate from 0.7% to 1.5%. However, the shocking discrepancy in deaths has been blamed for the lack of proper communication between the concerned stakeholders including the state public health department, hospitals, and the Chennai Corporation.

According to the report, the private and government hospitals in the city are being directed to disclose the death report to the state health department and the city's corporation. However, it was found that many hospitals are not disclosing the death report. The health department has said that it has installed a committee to sort out the issue behind the discrepancy and to bring all the deaths to the books. 

The department stated that the omitted death cases would be added to the state's register after proper verification. The reports stated that these deaths have registered in the Chennai Corporation but the count hasn't gone to the Department of Public Health and the state's registry since the hospitals in the city and the corporation haven't informed the DPH, causing a major discrepancy.

After the revelation of the mismatch, the DPH has now installed a committee to build a proper reporting of deaths in the city and the government body has also issued notices to the hospitals to seek the response behind the discrepancy. With the view of lowering the contradiction in the count, the DPH has instructed the Chennai Corporation to disclose the death reports in the format prescribed by the directorate. 

The state agency has formed a committee comprising of 11 experts and the Chennai Corporation has been directed to send the COVID-19 death reports to this committee and the experts would be inspecting the data disclosed by the corporation to streamline the death reports. The corporation has been asked to share the death reports to the committee from March 2020 to date and it must update the state agency daily concerning the deaths recorded in the city. 

The revelation of discrepancy has come at a crucial time when Tamil Nadu Health Minister Vijayabaskar asserted that the government has no intention to conceal the number and it has been transparent in reporting the numbers. Tamil Nadu has reported 307 deaths so far as of Tuesday of which 244 deaths were recorded in Chennai.