Govt rejects New York Times report on Covid deaths

New Delhi, September 16

The government on Thursday rejected a New York Times report claiming India underreported Covid deaths and scale even as the Congress demanded a judicial inquiry against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former health minister Harsh Vardhan and the ICMR chief, over “misleading the nation on the reality of the pandemic”.

Senior Congress spokesperson Ajay Maken in a press conference today sought that a sitting judge of the Supreme Court or a high court probe claims made in the report that alleges scientists working with the ICMR were told to underreport the scale of the pandemic leading to poor national response during the second wave.

Moments after the Congress made the demand, the government rejected the report. “We condemn such out of context reporting. This is not desirable,” Member, Health, NITI Aayog, said while ICMR Chief and Secretary, health research, Balram Bhargava said the NY Times article was “provocative and came at a time when India was doing good”. — TNS