Chikungunya can never cause death: Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain

The minister blamed ‘panic created by paid media’ for the reports, even as a 70-year-old man died taking the toll to 5.

New Delhi: Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain on Tuesday claimed that chikungunya, which has caused havoc in the national capital killing 5 people, ‘can never be the cause of anyone’s death’.

According to ANI, the minister, blaming the media for creating ‘panic’, said, “There has never been any death due to chikungunya in the world. Prove it medically. Medically chikungunya can never be cause of anyone's death.”

Claiming there was no outbreak of Chikungunya, the minister blamed ‘paid media’ for the reports.

‘The LGs aim is to defame Delhi as best he can,” Jain said blaming Najeeb Jung.

Five people have died so far of chikungunya in Delhi, including a 70-year-old man who died on Tuesday evening.

Delhi CM and AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal also blamed LG Najeeb Jung, as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the spread of chikungunya and dengue in the city.

Through a series of tweets, Kejriwal said, ''AAP has also blamed the BJP-dominated Municipal Corporation of Delhi or MCD, with Law minister Kapil Mishra asking where Delhi's "mayor has disappeared".

This was in response to reports that virtually the entire Cabinet in Delhi is not in the city even as the diseases spread.

Ministers including Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Satyendra Jain, Gopal Rai and Imran Hussain are out of station.

While the Chief Minister is scheduled to undergo a throat operation in Bengaluru on Tuesday, his deputy Sisodia is in Finland to study its education system.

Jain, who holds the Health portfolio, is touring poll-bound Goa, Rai is in Chhattisgarh and Hussain is on Haj pilgrimage. Only Water minister Kapil Mishra is stationed in the national capital.