India - Media outlet explains why there may be a large undercount in COVID-19 deaths - June 15, 2021 - Rpt: India's excess deaths in pandemic up to 4.

[sharon sanders]

snip

The reasons for underreporting of deaths are many, the primary of which included many villagers not reporting their symptoms to the health department teams fearing the stigma attached. Many such villagers later died at their homes and were never classified as Covid deaths.

Sources said that many cremation grounds, especially those in the rural areas of the state, had also witnessed an increase in the number of bodies that relatives claimed were not of Covid-19 patients.

“The state government should look into data pertaining to an increase in non-Covid deaths also. It is true that the state government didn’t hide the actual number of Covid-19 deaths. However, there were also a considerable number of unofficial deaths which were never reported to the health department and were classified as non-Covid. These deaths should be probed if we are to get the exact toll,” said an official of the state health department.

more..

https://indianexpress.com/article/c...-but-no-recount-as-of-now-for-punjab-7359377/

 

[Shiloh]

Source: https://ummid.com/news/2021/june/28.06.2021/india-actual-covid-deaths.html



India Covid-19 official death count of 3,90,000 falls far short of actual toll: Report
The University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation believes the true death toll in India may exceed 1.1 million
Monday June 28, 2021 12:57 PM, IANS

New Delhi: India has officially recorded more than 3,90,000 coronavirus deaths, but families who have lost loved ones, health experts and statisticians say that vastly undercounts the true toll, Wall Street Journal reported.

According to statisticians, the official death count of 3,90,000 falls far short of the pandemic's actual toll, the report said.

The University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation believes the true death toll in India may exceed 1.1 million, almost three times the reported number.

India's undercount has also left a huge gap in the world's understanding of the impact of the Delta variant, which health experts believe helped drive one of the world's worst Covid-19 surges in April and May...

 

[sharon sanders]

Another report also supports the idea that many dead were uncounted:


India's excess deaths in pandemic up to 4.9 million, study shows

by Reuters
Tuesday, 20 July 2021 10:11 GMT

July 20 (Reuters) - India's excess deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic could be as high as 4.9 million, according to a new study that provides further evidence that millions more may have died from coronavirus than the official tally.

The report by the Washington-based Center for Global Development, co-authored by India's former chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian, included deaths from all causes since the pandemic's start through June 2021.

India has officially reported more than 414,000 deaths due to COVID-19, the third highest tally in the world after the United States and Brazil, but the study adds to growing calls from experts for a rigorous nationwide fatality audit.

more...

https://news.trust.org/item/20210720085902-38pzn/