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A volunteer runs from the burning funeral pyres of Covid-19 victims at a crematorium in Jammu in May 2021. The WHO’s death toll estimate “cannot be applicable to India”, the country’s health ministry said. Photo: AP

Coronavirus: India slams WHO for 4.75 million pandemic death toll estimate – 10 times official count

  • The figure, with an estimated range of 3.3 to 6.5 million, would ascribe almost one-third of the world’s pandemic-related deaths to India
  • The country officially reported 481,000 Covid-19 deaths for 2020-21. Its health ministry said the WHO ‘conveniently chose to ignore the available data’
New Delhi has hit out at the World Health Organization over its estimated pandemic-related death total for India – which put the numbers at 10 times the country’s official toll.
The WHO estimated some 4.75 million deaths in India since 2020 could be attributed to the crisis, either directly from Covid-19 or indirectly through the pandemic’s wider impact on health systems and society.

The figure, with an estimated range of 3.3 to 6.5 million, would ascribe almost one-third of the world’s pandemic-related deaths to India. The country officially reported 481,000 Covid-19 deaths for 2020-21.

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Indian gravediggers work 24-hour shifts as coronavirus death toll soars

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The WHO figures, termed as excess mortality, are calculated as the difference between the number of deaths that occurred and the number that would have been expected in the absence of the pandemic.

After WHO released the numbers on Thursday, New Delhi said it had consistently opposed the UN health agency’s calculation methods.

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The Indian health and family welfare ministry in a statement accused WHO of publishing the data “without adequately addressing India’s concerns”.

Given the availability of “authentic data”, it said, “mathematical models should not be used for projecting excess mortality numbers for India”.

The country’s size, diversity and population of 1.3 billion meant the ‘one size fits all’ approach and model “cannot be applicable to India”, the ministry said.

WHO, for reasons best known to them, conveniently chose to ignore the available data submitted by India
India’s health ministry

“WHO, for reasons best known to them, conveniently chose to ignore the available data submitted by India,” it added.

The Delta variant of Covid-19 was first detected in India in October 2020 and went on to trigger a huge surge in cases in the country in April 2021 – and become the globally dominant strain.

Officially India says just under 525,000 people have died in the country from Covid-19, including deaths recorded this year.

Experts have consistently believed the true toll was several times higher.

Samira Asma, the WHO’s data chief, said the agency held a series of consultations with New Delhi and would continue “to engage with colleagues from India”.

Covid to blame for nearly 15 million excess deaths, WHO says

“We need to honour the lives tragically cut short, lives we lost – and we must hold ourselves and our policymakers accountable,” Asma told a press conference on Thursday.

The Covid-19 pandemic killed around 15 million people worldwide in 2020 and 2021, according to WHO estimates – nearly triple the number of deaths officially attributed to the disease and equalling around one in every 500 people globally.

India’s main opposition Congress party on Friday demanded a hefty rise in compensation for the families of those who died of Covid-19, following the WHO announcement.

“Science doesn’t LIE. Modi does,” Congress’s second-in-command, Rahul Gandhi, said on Twitter, citing the WHO report and referring to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Respect families who have lost loved ones.”

He asked the government to compensate the families of each person dying of Covid-19 with 400,000 rupees (US$5,250). The government currently gives 50,000 once deaths are confirmed to be from coronavirus.

The WHO said it had not yet fully examined new data provided this week by India, and it may add a disclaimer to its report highlighting ongoing conversations with India.

Some Indian states, nevertheless, have agreed to compensate more families than their official tally suggests.

Modi’s home state of Gujarat, for example, has recorded around 11,000 Covid-19 fatalities since the start of the pandemic but has approved at least 87,000 compensation claims.

Additional reporting by Reuters

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