Summary:
The Mamata Banerjee government took a proactive step and set up the "expert committee" to audit COVID-19 deaths on April 3 much ahead of the Union Home Secretary's letter to the state. It was also mentioned in the same letter that co-morbidity of a patient has to be looked into properly. Due to the controversy over deaths being declared due to "co-morbidity conditions", allegations of suppressing the actual toll figure is often cropping up. Stating that the state government has always cooperated with the Central team, the Chief Secretary maintained: "It is like an open book. The Central team in South Bengal on Friday visited the quarantine centre at Dumurjola in Howrah and the team in North Bengal went to certain places..