Cong demands special audit to trace actual Covid deaths
BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) continued to target the State government for suppressing death figures in the Covid pandemic and demanded a special audit to bring out the actual numbers. The party leaders threatened to stage a Statewide agitation over the issue in the coming days.Quoting a report submitted by the chief district medical officer of Nayagarh to the district social security officer, OPCC spokesperson Nishikanta Mishra alleged that there were 96 deaths in the district since April 28, but the government admitted only 14 deaths.
Mishra said that the first death in Nayagarh district during the second wave was reported from the Covid hospital at Chandapur on April 28. The report said that from April 28 to June 7, 117 patients had died due to Covid-19 in the same hospital. Among them, 21 were from Khurda district while the rest belonged to Nayagarh district. Besides, the State government had admitted only 59 deaths in the Nayagarh district during the first and second wave of the pandemic. Stating that the Nayagarh case is only the tip of the iceberg, Mishra said the situation in other districts can be imagined from this.
Alleging that the State government is fudging the death figures to project itself as the most efficient State in tackling the pandemic, the Congress leader demanded that if the government is keen on helping the Covid families devastated by the pandemic, it should order a special audit immediately.President of Nayagarh District Congress Committee Ranjit Das alleged that many patients in home isolation and others while being taken to the Covid hospital have also died.