In India, several million people have probably died from corona infection since the start of the pandemic, say American researchers. They estimate the number of corona deaths at 3.4 to 4.7 million. That is ten times more than what is now assumed. India has 1.3 billion inhabitants.
The researchers looked at the excess mortality rates. They counted many more deaths than there were on average before the pandemic broke out. The exact cause of death has not been determined for all deaths.
The coronavirus pandemic is the worst humanitarian disaster to hit India since independence in 1947, say researchers at the Center for Global Development.
The death toll has risen sharply in recent months due to the delta variant of the virus, which was first identified in India last December. It spreads faster than previously discovered variants.
Poor registration of grades
The official death toll in India is now 415,000. This puts the country behind the United States (609,000 dead) and Brazil (542,000 dead).
But the official death toll must therefore be considerably adjusted upwards, the American researchers say. “It will probably be in the several millions, not the hundreds of thousands.” The researchers say it’s difficult to give exact numbers, but it’s clear that the official death toll of 415,000 can’t be right.
The death toll in India has long been questioned. According to international researchers, misinformation is not deliberately released, but the figures are not complete due to faulty registration systems in the overloaded Indian health care system.
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