DCW asks Centre, Delhi govt to ascertain cause of cardiac arrest-related sudden deaths

New Delhi, Dec 10

Taking the suo moto cognisance of several media reports of sudden deaths in the country, the DCW on Saturday issued notice to the Centre and the Delhi government to ascertain the cause of rising recent incidence of such deaths due to cardiac arrests.

DCW Chief Swati Maliwal has issued notices to the country's top health research institute, the Indian Council of Medical Research and the Director General of Health Service, and the Union and Delhi governments.

"Reportedly, a bride in her early twenties recently died due to sudden cardiac attack during her marriage ceremony in Lucknow. Similarly, a 16-year-old teen died while playing cricket and a man died in a temple in Madhya Pradesh while he was doing 'parikrama'. Many such cases have come to light wherein people of young as well as old age have died due to apparent cardiac arrests while they were simply carrying out their daily routine work," the DCW has said in the notices

The commission has said that these incidents have raised serious concerns and is being widely speculated that these deaths are somehow connected to Covid-19.

Through the notices to the ICMR and the DGHS, the DCW has sought details of any committee constituted by the concerned stakeholders to investigate these deaths. It also sought the steps taken to generate awareness amongst people regarding the cause of such deaths, along with the precautions that people should be advised to take.

The commission has also asked for the steps taken by the governments to study the long term impact of the Covid-19 virus on the health of people.

Also, it has sought details of the mechanism been setup to ensure that any such sudden deaths are properly investigated by a central forensic and biomedical team so that the cause of such are properly ascertained.

"Some unfortunate incidents of sudden deaths have come before the country. Several videos depicting the same are getting viral, where young and old can be seen dying on the spot suddenly while carrying out routine tasks. The cause of such deaths should be urgently investigated. It should be ascertained whether these cases are linked to Covid-19 in any manner. The government must make a strategy to deal with such cases and advisories should be issued to the government informing people about the precautions they are supposed to take," Maliwal said.