Tamil Nadu: DMK's Stalin slams ruling govt over the new COVID death data, seeks apology

DMK president MK Stalin slammed the Tamil Nadu government over discrepancies in Covid-19 mortality figures, he also sought an apology from Chief Minister Edapadi Palanisamy for allegedly hiding the deaths and cheating the people since last four months.

In a detailed video statement, MK Stalin demanded the government must release the entire Covid-19 district wise death data from day one to clear the confusion on COVID death numbers. 

He also goes on to say it's dubious and unfair that 444 deaths have increased in one day after the data released by the reconciliation committee added to the death list. The cases in a single day have increased from 2,700 to 3,144.

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The principal opposition leader also accused the government of hiding Covid-19 death data from March 1 to June 10. He adds that the health department officials were threatened by the chief minister and health minister to undervalue the deaths.

Yesterday, the government released the new death data and added 444 new Covid19 deaths in Tamil Nadu as there were discrepancies between the death data released by the Chennai corporation and Health Ministry in the middle of June. Hence the health ministry formed a reconciliation committee to ascertain the exact numbers of deaths, which were left out due to various factors.

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"These numbers need not be politicised or people need not get shocked, even if the deaths recorded are not only Covid-19 based, we've added the cases with co-morbid conditions incidentally with Covid19 which is according to the guidelines of ICMR, so people need not worry," said health minister Dr. Vijayabhaskar during a press conference.

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