- Experts believe that the number of Covid-19 deaths in India is much higher than the official figures show.
- A study estimated that between 1.8 million and 2.4 million people died from the virus in India.
- The report said that Indian officials tried to suppress the true figures.
- View more stories on Business Insider SA’s homepage.
According to reports, the actual number of deaths from Covid-19 in India may be 5 to 7 times the official data. economist.
Earlier this year, the country was ravaged by a disastrous second wave of Covid-19, with widespread reports of hospital overcrowding and oxygen shortages.
The Indian Ministry of Health claims that more than 411,000 people have died of the virus since the pandemic began. Experts now believe that the official figure is only a small part of the true number of deaths.
The Economist quoted a recent paper by Christopher Leffler of Virginia Commonwealth University in the United States and estimated that 1.8 to 2.4 million people have died of Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.
If it is true, it will mean that India has by far the highest Covid-19 death rate in the world. According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the United States currently has the highest official death toll, with more than 60,000 deaths recorded.
Another study cited by The Economist, based on insurance claims in Telangana, India, shows that the number of deaths from the virus may be six times the official data.
The Indian government rejected these reports, claiming that they had no scientific basis.
Yashwant Deshmukh, chairman of the CVoter voting organization, told The Economist that misleading official data “is not about ability, but about intention.”
“And this has nothing to do with the central government or specific political parties. It has to do with data suppression at all levels, no matter who is responsible.”
according to Foreign policy, The way the Indian government records the death toll from Covid-19 obscures the true death toll
According to the magazine, the first problem is that India’s death registration system underestimated the number of deaths before the pandemic. This is partly because many Indians did not receive treatment before they died, and many deaths were not medically certified.
But some of the problems in registering deaths are peculiar to the pandemic. India’s official guidelines state that if a person dies without being tested for the virus, or if they test negative but show symptoms, their death should be classified as “suspected or probable Covid-19.”
However, officials from several Indian states told Foreign Policy that only those who tested positive for the virus and died shortly after the hospital and the disease had progressed clearly were counted as the official Covid-19 death toll.
The magazine added that most states in India have established a “death audit committee” that reviews death certificates to determine what should be classified as a Covid-19 death. In some cases, the deaths of patients with comorbidities are due to these conditions rather than Covid-19.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, India has now basically overcome the second wave of the epidemic, reporting approximately 40,000 new cases every day.In its heyday, India accounted for approximately Half of Covid-19 cases in the world, According to the World Health Organization.
