Supreme Court says govt must simplify COVID-19 death certification process

‘What is the remedy in the case of those given certificates showing some other reason as cause of death’

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Union government what it plans to do in cases of patients whose death certificates cited some other reason for the cause of death. “What is the remedy in the case of COVID patients who have already been issued death certificates showing some other reason as cause of death”, Justice M.R. Shah, who accompanied Justice Ashok Bhushan on the Bench, asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta. The court suggested that the government should simplify the process for certification COVID-19 deaths. It asked the government whether the reason of death could be given as COVID-19 in the certificate if the family could produce a COVID-19 report, no matter whether the patient died in a hospital or outside. The court pointed out that some patients were not even given their medical records.