Dead will not come back, no point in discussing death numbers: Haryana CM

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday (April 27) said there is no point in debating the number of people who died of COVID and said that all governments should pay attention to helping maximum people recover from the deadly infection.

Khattar was responding to a media question if the number of people who died of COVID was way more than was reported by the government. “Given the precarious situation we find ourselves in right now, there is no point in debating over numbers (of dead). We should instead focus on how people recover from the disease,” Khattar was quoted as saying by ANI.

“Those who died will not come back. We are trying our best to save every life. There’s no point debating if the number of deaths is actually more or less,” he added.

Haryana’s COVID death toll on Monday (April 26), i.e. 75, was the highest reported so far. The state recorded 11,000+ new cases on the day.

Also read: What’s the real drive behind temple facelifts in Odisha — tourism promotion or soft Hindutva?

The CM assured there is no dearth of medicines or oxygen and said the people of Haryana should not worry because the state is well prepared in the face of this deadly pandemic. Meanwhile, Haryana deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala asked Union Minister Piyush Goyal to include remdesivir, oxygen and other items used to treat COVID-19 patients in the Essential Commodities list.

It may be noted that there have been unconfirmed reports of underreporting of COVID deaths in several states, primarily in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. However, it is difficult to arrive at a conclusion because the death count is strictly managed by the local administration which then passes on the information to the Centre via established channels. Some independent journalists tried to find out on their own by counting the number of funerals at crematoriums, which, on occasions, came out to be more than the recorded deaths.

The country on Tuesday (April 27) reported 3,23,144 positive cases and 2,771 deaths. This is a slight drop in the daily caseload. The cumulative caseload stands at 17,625,735 and the death toll inched closer to the 200,000-mark. At present, India has about 29 lakh active cases.