Ever since the second wave of Covid-19 hit India, its Covid death toll has remained a matter of contention amid news of underreporting of Covid cases by the government.
On Wednesday, a New York Times report estimated that about 16 lakh Indians died due to Covid-19 during the second wave of the pandemic.
The NYT report contradicts the country’s official data, according to which only 307,231 deaths have taken place as of May 24. It says that even by a conservative estimate, the result is a death toll roughly double of what’s been reported to date.
The worst-case scenario suggests that over 40 lakh Indian died due to Covid-19 during the second wave of Covid-19.
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The report published by NYT states that the estimated number of total deaths was arrived at after consultations with experts and analysing cases and death counts over a period of time.
The NYT report has also used data from three nationwide antibody tests, called serosurveys.
Kayoko Shioda, an epidemiologist at Emory University, said that because hospitals are overwhelmed, many Covid deaths occur at home, especially in rural areas, and are omitted from the official count.\
Going by the official data provided by the government, India’s death toll is the third-highest reported in the world after the US and Brazil, accounting for 8.6% of the nearly 3.47 million coronavirus fatalities globally, though the true numbers are thought to be significantly greater.
