Plea In Orissa HC Seeking Audit Of Covid Deaths In State

A petition has been filed in the Orissa High Court seeking high-level independent audit of the Covid deaths in the State. Congress leader and petitioner Nishikanta Mishra has prayed before the HC to direct for a special assessment of the number of deaths in the State due to Covid-19 infections.

"There are many irregularities between the Covid fatalities data furnished by the district-level authorities like CDMO and the State government's Health Department statistics. From the figures, it is clear that Odisha government has tried to suppress the Covid death numbers in order to protect its image," Mishra told OTV.

He further added, "We have highlighted before the HC that despite all big claims made by the State government, so far only 1.3 crore people have been tested for Covid-19 which is quite less. The situation is worse in rural pockets of the State where testing is almost negligible."
"Therefore we have earnestly requested the apex court to direct the government to further augment the testing capabilities of the State and also begin speedy vaccination to save precious lives," said the petitioner.

He also informed that the Chief Secretary and Additional Chief Secretary of the Health Department have been made party in the case. 

Odisha has recorded a total of 3508 Covid deaths since the onset of the pandemic over an year ago. The State has seen 37 new fatalities due to the disease in the last 24 hours. 

With 3806 fresh infections, the State's cumulative cases have now risen to 870498. The total recoveries stand at 823599 while the active cases have come down to 43338.