Today, India has around 3.09 lakh COVID-19 cases. From these, 1.54 lakh have recovered and about 8,000 have died due to this illness. The low number of deaths is seen as relief by many. But there is an apprehension on the way states are reporting death. According to a report, the centre’s rapid response team for COVID-19 last month suggested states to conduct COVID-19 death audits. But the states continue to follow their own ways of reporting death data.
India’s death per million population is 6 whereas in countries like the United States, Brazil and Russia is 353, 197 and 46 respectively. In the case of tests per million, India (3,993 tests per million) stands in par with Pakistan (3,802 tests per million) and Mexico (3,055).
“First, India has among the lowest per capita rates of testing in the world and many COVID-19 deaths may not be reported. Then there are reports that states are under-reporting deaths to present a better picture of their performance," said Ramanan Laxminarayan, director at Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy to Livemint. Such under-reporting will make it difficult to identify community transmission.
India is among the top ten countries in terms of COVID-19 deaths. On Friday, India reported 397 deaths, the highest number of deaths in a single day due to COVID-19. The per-day average of deaths has more than doubled in June compared to the previous month as it stands 288.
There was a mismatch found in states like New Delhi and Tamil Nadu recently. There was a mismatch between the figures released by the state government and those by Delhi’s municipal corporations, who sourced data from crematoriums and cemeteries. In the case of Tamil Nadu, it was found that in Chennai after over 200 suspected COVID-19 deaths were found to have been left out of the official tally.
“The cause of death should be given in the death certificate according to the International Classification of Diseases. Not many states may be following this. Some may be using COVID-19 as a secondary cause, then the death wouldn’t reach the official toll of the state. Many states may not be testing bodies, and this would further decrease the actual toll," said Dr Jugal Kishore, head, department of community medicine, Safdarjung Hospital.
