Government is lying on COVID-19 deaths, alleges Siddaramaiah

Accusing the government of misleading the public by releasing fudged data on COVID-19 deaths, Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah on Sunday challenged the State to release the number of death certif

Accusing the government of misleading the public by releasing fudged data on COVID-19 deaths, Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah on Sunday challenged the State to release the number of death certificates issued in recent months. In a letter addressed to Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, Mr. Siddaramaiah said the number of deaths has to be reported meticulously, but the data released on testing, positivity, and deaths has been misleading. “The government is lying,” he said. He said that if the governments release proper data on the number of deaths since 2020, the truth would be known about the deaths in society. He also said that even the number of tests had come down from an average of 1.75 lakh daily in April to 1.15 lakh, bringing the figures down by 30%. The testing has been reduced citing a decline in positivity rate, while the rate remains around 50% in several districts, he said.