The government on Thursday dismissed as "completely baseless" a recent New York Times report on COVID-19 toll in India, saying it is not backed by any evidence. Dismissing the report, Health ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said, "It is completely baseless and absolutely false and not backed on any evidence." "The estimates have been done ad-hoc without any basis... reported cases are a part of a larger universe of total infections in any country," he said. "If we go with our sero survey, then infection related mortality is 0.05 per cent and actual mortality is 1.1 per cent... He further said that if the same method is used, then by that estimate New York reported 50,000 deaths in May.

Source: Hindustan Times May 27, 2021 14:15 UTC