WHO estimates 4.7 million COVID-linked deaths in India.The figure is nearly 10 times the government’s official count for 2020 and 2021

Jacob KoshyNew Delhi

There were likely 47 lakh deaths, directly or indirectly attributable to COVID-19, in India in 2020 and 2021, a report by the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday. These are the highest, by far, for any country and make up nearly a third of the 15 million such deaths estimated by the agency globally.

India officially estimated only 4.8 lakh cumulative deaths linked to COVID-19 as of December 2021, which implies that the WHO estimate is nearly 10 times the government count. As of May, India’s official COVID-19 death toll is 5.2 lakh.

Minutes after the WHO released its estimate, India reiterated its “objection to the methodology” used.

“These sobering data not only point to the impact of the pandemic but also to the need for all countries to invest in more resilient health systems that can sustain essential health services during crises, including stronger health information systems,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “WHO is committed to working with all countries to strengthen their health information systems....”

Excess deaths are calculated as the difference between the number of deaths that have occurred and the number that would be expected in the absence of the pandemic based on data from earlier years. Excess mortality includes deaths associated with COVID-19 directly or indirectly (due to the pandemic’s impact on health systems).

India will contest report, say officials

06/05/2022 

Bindu Shajan Perappadan NEW DELHI

India will take up the “glaring anomalies” in the WHO report on excess mortality estimates associated with the COVID pandemic at the highest and appropriate forum, said sources in the Health Ministry on Thursday. “The numbers are nowhere close to reality,” the Ministry said.

“This reflects a statistically unsound and scientifically questionable methodology of data collection for making excess mortality projections in the case of India,” it said. The WHO should appreciate the fact that mortality is a sensitive topic and any speculative report on this can have multiple and needless adverse effects, it added.