Former Minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir has alleged that the State government is hiding the actual statistics of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Telangana.
Mr. Shabbir Ali said the modified media bulletin issued by the Director of Public Health on Sunday for cases as of July 25 (till 8 p.m.) clearly exposes the trickery of State government in hiding the figures. He alleged that there was a huge mismatch in the number of deaths occurring in COVID and other hospitals across the State and the deaths being reported in the bulletin.
In a statement issued here on Sunday, he said many deaths due to COVID were not being registered officially to show lower mortality rate. The fatality rate in the media bulletin was just 10% of the actual number of bodies being cremated or buried at graveyards and crematoriums across the State. “If those deaths have occurred due to reasons other than coronavirus, why are the last rites being performed silently,” he asked.
The present death rate, according the media bulletin, was just 2.3% of the total number of positive cases reported so far, the former Minister said and pointed out that various Central agencies tracking the COVID situation had repeatedly accused the Telangana government of under-reporting the cases. “Less number of cases will show less mortality rate and a high recovery rate,” the Congress leader noted.
Further, he pointed out that Telangana was not conducting tests as per the guidelines set by the World Health Organisation (WHO). While the WHO had recommended at least 140 tests per million per day, the overall testing rate in Telangana so far was just 113 per million of the population. The testing rate had increased to some extent after the Congress raised the issue in June second week.
He alleged that the State government was misleading people by claiming the testing rate to be 391 tests per million since it represented the testing done only for the day and not all tests conducted so far. He sought to know why Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao was trying to downplay the COVID-19 threat since day one and the government neglect was making the people suffer.