Congress Demands the White Paper on COVID-19 Deaths

Hyderabad, Dec.26 (Maxim News): The Congress party on Sunday demanded that the Telangana Government issue a White Paper on deaths due to Covid-19, along with details of compensation paid to the families of victims.

“TRS Govt has suppressed the figures of deaths due to Coronavirus. As per official figures, as on 25th December 2021, a total 6,80,553 people were infected with the virus and a total of 4,021 lost their lives. But the real number of deaths is much higher than the official figure. The State Government has started receiving applications to pay compensation of Rs. 50,000 announced by the Central Government. However, it did not make any attempts to cover all the families who lost their loved ones due to Covid-19,” Hyderabad City Congress Committee (HCCC) Minorities Department Chairman Sameer Waliullah said in a media statement.

Sameer Waliullah pointed out that the authorities were taking into account only the deaths that occurred in hospitals. There were several cases wherein patients died on the way to hospitals or at the entrance of hospitals due to denial of admission. Many deaths that occurred at home or in remote villages were also not recorded. In many cases, the hospital authorities did not mention Covid as the cause of death in the Death Certificates. Instead, they mentioned ‘pulmonary arrest’ or ‘pulmonary cardiac arrest’ as the cause of death. The State Government should frame new guidelines to include all such deaths as Covid deaths so as to help the families of the victim, he demanded

Quoting reliable sources, the Congress leader said that so far nearly 7,000 families have applied for the compensation due to Covid deaths although the official death toll is 4,021. “Why would any family lie about the death of their loved one? The State Government should trust all those families and consider their applications on humanitarian basis. Most of them might not possess documents asked by the authorities to prove that their kin died due to Covid-19. Instead of rejecting those applications on face value, the State Government should accept them by taking into the consideration the circumstances that prevailed at the time of death,” he said.

Sameer Waliullah demanded that the State Government release a White Paper on the Covid situation by disclosing the details of the amount spent to handle the pandemic and to help the affected persons and their families. “Many patients, who recovered from Covid, are still facing some health complications. Most of them are unable to bear the expenses as they lost their entire savings for treatment. Therefore, the State Government should announce a relief package to help the families who lost their livelihood due to both Covid and lockdown,” he demanded.(Maxim News)

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