WHO warns of Covid-19 fake news; clarifies never predicted deaths in India

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday said it has not issued any warnings of deaths in India due to Covid-19. Taking to Twitter, the WHO said a video claiming that the WHO has warned of 50,000 deaths in India is "fake news". The WHO has not issued any such warning, it said.

"A video claiming WHO has warned of 50,000 deaths in India by April 15 is fake news. WHO has not issued any such warning," the World Health Organization Regional Office for South-East Asia (SEARO) said in a tweet.

At the moment, India's death toll due to coronavirus has increased to 1,65,547. However, despite the gradual emergence of the second wave of coronavirus, the mortality rates this time around is lower than the period when daily cases were at the same level in the country, according to the rating agency CRISIL.

As per the union health ministry's data, 56,033 people have died due to coronavirus in Maharashtra in the last one year. Whereas in Tamil Nadu (12,789), Karnataka (12,657), Delhi (11,096), West Bengal (10,348), and Uttar Pradesh (8,894) have succumbed to the COVID-19 infection in the same period.

Currently, India is in the fourth spot in terms of global coronavirus deaths. Ahead of India are the United States (555,615); Brazil (332,752), and Mexico (204,399), according to the latest data by the Johns Hopkins University. Globally, 28,61,677 people have died due to COVID-19 as of April 6.

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