The number of excess deaths in India during the coronavirus pandemic could be as high as 10 times the official COVID-19 toll, research published on Tuesday said.
According to a study by Arvind Subramanian, the former chief economic adviser to the Indian government, Abhishek Anand of Harvard Kennedy School, and Justin Sandefur of the U.S.-based Center for Global Development, the report estimates between 3.4 million to 4.9 million deaths between January 2020 and June 2021. While official tally is around 400,000 fatalities as of June 2021.
The study examined three different data sources – including extrapolating death registrations from seven states, where half of India’s population lives, and applying international estimates of age-specific infection fatality rates to nationwide antibody tests.
The authors say: “True deaths are likely to be in the several million not hundreds of thousands, making this arguably India’s worst human tragedy since Partition and independence.”
Read the full report here.
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