India’s official death toll from Covid-19 passed 500,000 on Friday, a milestone that some data analysts said was reached last year but was clouded by inaccurate research and uncounted deaths in the countryside, where millions remain vulnerable to the disease.
The country, which has the fourth highest death count in the world, recorded 400,000 deaths in July 2021 following the devastating outbreak of the Delta variant, according to official figures. Some believe the numbers are much higher.
“Our study published in the journal Science estimates 3 million Covid deaths in India by mid-2021 using three different databases,” study co-author Chinmay Tumbe, an assistant professor at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, told Reuters.
Last month, the Indian government dismissed the study as unfounded, saying there is a robust system for reporting births and deaths.
India’s states record Covid deaths after collecting data from their districts. In recent months, several states have updated the death toll, some under pressure from the country’s Supreme Court.
In most cases, officials said there were lapses due to delays in filings and other administrative errors.
India is currently in the midst of a third wave of coronavirus led by the Omicron variant, which some experts say is already in community transmission, although federal officials say most cases are mild.
Last month, the government relaxed testing rules and told states to drop mandatory testing for contacts of confirmed cases unless they were elderly or struggling with other conditions. But with the number of tests falling, the government issued a revised circular warning stating that it would miss the spread of the virus.
According to official figures, the total number of Covid infections in India has reached 41.95 million, the second highest globally behind the United States. To prevent further outbreaks, the government vaccinated three-quarters of the eligible adult population of 939 million with the mandatory two-dose regimen.
Indian authorities are carrying out a vaccination campaign in remote parts of the country to increase late vaccination rates, with healthcare workers going door-to-door to administer injections.
“I make them understand how important vaccines are to escape the coronavirus,” health worker Asmita Koladiya, who is forced to take her young daughter with her to work, told Reuters because of a lack of childcare.
In the nation’s capital New Delhi, as new infections of the Omicron variant have dropped sharply, authorities have eased restrictions further and said they will allow schools and colleges to reopen from Monday and allow private offices to be fully populated.
The city’s sports complexes will also reopen, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said in a webcast on Friday.
India’s cumulative tally of 500,055 deaths on Friday included 1,072 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, according to the country’s Ministry of Health. Of that total, 335 deaths were recorded in the southern state of Kerala, which has been updating data for last year’s deaths for weeks.
Kerala, with less than 3% of India’s 1.35 billion population, accounts for nearly 11% of the country’s total reported deaths.
“Some states, like Kerala, are recording their deaths in arrears under judicial pressure, although not all states have done so,” said Gautam Menon, a professor of physics and biology at Ashoka University near the capital, who tracks the spread of the virus. .
In Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat, authorities have received more than 100,000 Covid-19 compensation claims, of which 87,000 claims have been approved, according to a senior government official.
The number of complaints received is nearly 10 times the official COVID-19 death toll of 10,545, as per government data. “There has been no underreporting of Covid-19 deaths,” the official said, declining to be identified due to the sensitive nature of the discussions.
Source: CNN Brasil
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