Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 18 (PTI) Rajya Sabha member and Left leader John Brittas on Monday sought an exhaustive review of the data pertaining to COVID-19 deaths in India following media reports that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has placed the country"s coronavirus fatalities higher than what has so far been reported by the Union government. In a letter written to Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, the CPI(M) member from Kerala sought necessary directions to the authorities concerned to take urgent actions to conduct an extensive review of the data pertaining to COVID deaths in India and to take proactive actions against a possible future wave of pandemic efficiently and effectively. "It’s disquieting to note the Media reports that @WHO has placed India’s Covid death at around 40 lacs! It’s way above the Official figure of 5.2 lacs. We need to come clean on this and data should be sacrosanct," Brittas tweeted along with the copy of the letter. In the letter, Brittas said it was pertinent to note that there were several reports in the past also concerning the purported attempts to manipulate the data crunching regarding the COVID deaths in India. Brittas pointed out many reports including those from the journal Science, that the analysis found India"s cumulative COVID deaths by September 2021 were six to seven times higher than the figures reported officially. "Nevertheless, we are constrained to go by the official data published by the Government of India. Being an international agency under the aegis of United Nations, WHO"s reports and methodologies adopted for studies are viewed with utmost earnestness and seriousness," the Rajya Sabha MP said. He said the data has to be sacrosanct and that the country won"t be in a position to take concrete and fruitful steps against the pandemic without clarity and transparency. Brittas said it was a matter of utmost priority to conduct an exhaustive review of the data pertaining to COVID deaths in India as well as to authenticate and disclose the actual data. PTI RRT RRT KH HDA HDA