Centre rubbishes reports alleging undercounting of Covid-19 deaths in first 2 waves

Funeral pyres of people who died of Covid, at a crematorium in New Delhi on April 27, 2021. Pic/AFP

The Health Ministry has rejected media reports alleging a "significant undercount" of Covid-19 deaths in the first two waves in India, saying these are fallacious, ill-informed and mischievous in nature. The Government of India has a very comprehensive definition to classify Covid deaths, based on globally acceptable categorisation, it said.

In a statement, the ministry rubbished some media reports alleging a "significant undercount" of the actual number of people who have died in India due to Covid-19 in the first two waves and that the final toll may be "substantially greater" crossing the figures of about three million.

"It is clarified that such media reports are fallacious and ill-informed. They are not based on facts and are mischievous in nature. India has a very robust system of birth and death reporting which is based on a statute and is carried out regularly from the gram panchayat level to the district level and state level," the statement said.

These current media reports on "significant undercount" of the actual number of people who have died in India are based on a study which seems biased in nature as only adults with Covid-19 symptoms were captured and cannot be thus representative of the general population, the statement said.

"There also appears to be selection bias as the survey is restricted to phone owning people who can also take out time to answer questions comprehensively. The sample could be skewed towards urban areas in that sense, where more cases were reported, and thus, have a higher reporting," it said.

3,65,82,129
Total no. of Coronavirus cases in India so far

4,85,350
Total no. of deaths due to the virus in India so far

12,72,073
Total no. of active cases in India

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