Congress Alleges Under-Reporting Of Covid Deaths In States Like Gujarat

Congress leaders alleged that the deaths in Gujarat this year have doubled than in 2020 and claimed that the substantial increase cannot be explained as a natural annual one and can only be attributed to a pandemic.

The Congress on Saturday alleged under-reporting of COVID-19 deaths in some states especially in Gujarat and demanded an explanation from both the central and the state governments. Congress leaders P Chidambaram and Shaktisinh Gohil in a joint press conference alleged that the deaths in Gujarat this year have doubled than in 2020 and claimed that the substantial increase cannot be explained as a natural annual one and can only be attributed to a pandemic. The two Congress leaders cited a news report that claimed that Gujarat issued about 1,23,000 death certificates between March 1 and May 10, as against about 58,000 certificates issued during the same period last year and said they got these verified after collecting data from 33 districts of the state. The Congress leaders said the sum of the number of the death certificates collected nearly tallies with the numbers published and that comes to 1,23,873 in 2021 against 58,068 last year.