‘Under-reporting of virus deaths in Odisha’

The Odisha Congress on Monday accused the Naveen Patnaik government of under-reporting COVID-19 deaths to cover up its failure in tackling the pandemic. “In about 40 days, Nayagarh, a small district,

The Odisha Congress on Monday accused the Naveen Patnaik government of under-reporting COVID-19 deaths to cover up its failure in tackling the pandemic. “In about 40 days, Nayagarh, a small district, has officially communicated that 117 persons have succumbed to COVID-19. However, the State government has been maintaining Nayagarh’s COVID-19 death-toll at 59, combining fatalities of both first and second waves,” Congress leader Nishinkant Mishra told a press conference. Mr. Mishra said Nayagarh’s actual deaths got exposed when the internal communication of inclusion of pandemic victims found its way to public domain.