New Delhi: The World Health Organisation’s report that Covid deaths in India were almost ten times the official figure may have been trashed by the government but has galvanised the Opposition Congress to question the pandemic data.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted: “47 lakh Indians died due to the Covid pandemic. NOT 4.8 lakh as claimed by the Govt. Science doesn’t LIE. Modi does.”
He said the government should respect families who have lost loved ones and support them with the “mandated ₹4 lakh compensation”.
In its report, WHO estimated that nearly 15 million people were killed either by the coronavirus or by its impact on overwhelmed health systems in the past two years, more than double the official death toll of 6 million. Most of the fatalities were in Southeast Asia, Europe and the Americas, it said.
According to the report, there were 4.7 million Covid deaths in India — 10 times the official figures and almost a third of Covid deaths globally.
Top health experts have questioned the modelling methodology used by the WHO to estimate 4.7 million deaths in India due to Covid-19 or its impact.
They said the WHO’s “one-size-fits-all” approach was disappointing. They rejected the report as “untenable and unfortunate”.
Rejecting the findings, doctors said India did not agree with the methodology that has been followed for the country.
The government had nothing to hide, they said, and that there was an active process by which Covid deaths were being reconciled. There was a robust system from the ground, they said, rejecting the WHO’s estimate.
India has reported 524,002 Covid-19 deaths — the most after the United States and Brazil — with more than 43 million infections. The Print
