The Supreme Court has said no state should deny the ex-gratia compensation of Rs 50,000, as recommended by National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), to the kin of persons who died of Covid-19 on the sole ground that death certificate does not mention it as the cause of death.

The bench said that the compensation would be disbursed from state disaster relief funds within 30 days of submitting application and cause of death being certified as of Covid-19. It also ordered the states and the Centre to give wide publicity to the scheme in print media and electronic media.