translated from Spanish: Public Space insists on lack of certainty in death figures and accuses delay in reporting new contagions

The Public Space study center presented a new report on the evolution of the covid-19 pandemic in Chile on Monday. In the document, they expressed concern about the lag between dates of death and the processing of information.
They also disclosed the consequences of changes in the methodology for counting coronavirus deceased. First, they detailed that “we have had six days, several of them in May, with at least 100
died by covid-19. Second, yesterday 96 new deaths were reported, which seems to contradict the 20 deaths that appeared on the last day on the Minsal chart.”
In that regard, they explained that “the remaining 76 deaths have death dates prior to the report’s closing date (Saturday, June 6)”.
“Today, for example, medical societies led by Sochimi reported 103 deaths between Saturday at 5pm and Sunday at the same time.”
In that line, they recalled the statements of The Minister of Science Andrés Couve and explained that “this lag is due to the time it takes the Civil Registry to process the certificates and then the Minsal in making the crosses with the PCRs”.
In the study conducted by researchers Camila Arroyo, Eduardo Engel, Diego Pardow and Pablo Simonetti, they argue that Minister Couve’s statements ignite an “alert light” as they suggest that the PCR test “has again been a condition for classifying a death as covid-19, when recently his health colleague had reported that it would no longer be required. It also drew attention that while Minister Couve argued today that the criteria used are “similar to those of the countries of the European Union”, Minister Mañalich referred to strict adhere to WHO guidelines.”
With all this background, they asked the Ministers of Health and Science to report “in writing the criteria in force in Chile to classify a death as covid-19, along with the international standards that endorse them”.
See the full report here.

Original source in Spanish