Nagpur: The World Health Organization’s estimate of 47.4 lakh covid-related deaths in India between 2020 and 2021 contradicts overall death data and historical trends in death reporting. India has strongly reacted to a ‘WHO’ report claiming that the number of COVIS-19 fatalities globally is three times higher than the official figure.
According to the WHO, the total number of deaths caused by the coronavirus was approximately 14.9 million, with South-East Asia, Europe, and the Americas having the highest fatalities.
In response to WHO’s findings, the Union Ministry of Health stated that it “Objects to the use of mathematical models for projecting excess mortality estimates in the absence of authentic data.”
According to the international body’s newly prepared report, which comprises data collected between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2021, India experienced 4.7 million excess deaths, as opposed to the official record of 5,20,000.
Further the Health Ministry said, “The test positivity rate for COVID-19 in India has never been uniform across the country at any point in time.” Such a modelling approach ignores the variability in COVID positivity rates across the country, both in terms of space and time.”
