‘Probe actual number of COVID deaths’

The Delhi Congress on Tuesday demanded probe by a retired High Court judge to find out the actual COVID death toll in the Capital, alleging that many deaths, including those in home isolation, were no

The Delhi Congress on Tuesday demanded probe by a retired High Court judge to find out the actual COVID death toll in the Capital, alleging that many deaths, including those in home isolation, were not included in the official COVID-19 death category. The party alleged that the Delhi government was manipulating the numbers to skirt paying compensation. Delhi Congress chief Ch. Anil Kumar said that Delhi Congress has been demanding that the families of those who died of COVID-19 be paid an ex gratia amount of ₹4 lakh under the Disaster Management Act and said that the sum of ₹50,000 announced by the Delhi government was meagre “Thousands of people lost their lives in the first, second, third and fourth waves of the COVID-19 pandemic as Delhi was one of the worst COVID-hit Capitals in the world, but the official death figures given out by the Delhi government till now (24,997) were fewer than the death certificates issued by the municipal corporations,” Mr. Kumar said.