Centre condemns New York Times Report On Covid Deaths in India, calls it baseless!
Recently, the US-based Media outlet New York Times claimed that India is underreporting the Covid deaths and in a report, the outlet said that India could have over 40 lakh deaths, which is 16 times more than the Covid deaths announced by the Indian government.
In response, the Centre has come down on the report and rubbished its report. Terming the report filed by the outlet baseless, the government said there is no proper evidence to back the report. Based on distorted estimates, the report was compiled, the government said.
Talking about the report, VK Paul, NITI Aayog member and the head of India's Covid task force, said that there was a possibility for the infections being higher than the positive Covid tests, but said the same is not the case with Covid deaths.
"There may be some late reporting of deaths but there's no intent of any state or the Centre. If I apply the same three times yardstick to New York, then there would be 50,000 deaths. But they say it's 16,000. So this is distorted," Mr. Paul said.
The NITI Aayog member questioned, on what basis did the US media outlet say India could have more Covid deaths?. 'Five people get together, make phone calls to each other, and then throw this number. That's how this report has been done,' he observed.
There is a strong system to track the mortalities in the countries. With proper research and study, the news outlet should have not published such a report, the NITI Aayog member said.
In the last 24 hours, India witnessed a huge downfall in Covid cases as 1.86 lakh people were tested positive, taking the total caseload to over 2.75 crores. Covid casualties rose to 3,18,895 after 3,660 Covid patients died in the last 24 hours.
In response, the Centre has come down on the report and rubbished its report. Terming the report filed by the outlet baseless, the government said there is no proper evidence to back the report. Based on distorted estimates, the report was compiled, the government said.
Talking about the report, VK Paul, NITI Aayog member and the head of India's Covid task force, said that there was a possibility for the infections being higher than the positive Covid tests, but said the same is not the case with Covid deaths.
"There may be some late reporting of deaths but there's no intent of any state or the Centre. If I apply the same three times yardstick to New York, then there would be 50,000 deaths. But they say it's 16,000. So this is distorted," Mr. Paul said.
The NITI Aayog member questioned, on what basis did the US media outlet say India could have more Covid deaths?. 'Five people get together, make phone calls to each other, and then throw this number. That's how this report has been done,' he observed.
There is a strong system to track the mortalities in the countries. With proper research and study, the news outlet should have not published such a report, the NITI Aayog member said.
In the last 24 hours, India witnessed a huge downfall in Covid cases as 1.86 lakh people were tested positive, taking the total caseload to over 2.75 crores. Covid casualties rose to 3,18,895 after 3,660 Covid patients died in the last 24 hours.