India on Thursday became only the third country to report over 4 lakh deaths after the US and Brazil. According to the reports, there are ten countries where more than one lakh people have succumbed to Covid or related complications. With 6 lakh deaths, the US is at the top of this list and is followed by Brazil (5.2 lakh), India (4.0 lakh).
India has the lowest death rate among these countries, with 287 deaths per million people. Russia has 916, while France, Mexico, the United States and the United Kingdom have between 1,000 and 2,000. Peru has the highest death rate among these countries, with 5,765 deaths per million of its population.
Meanwhile, in the midst of the debate over the underreporting of Covid-19 deaths, SBI economists said on Wednesday that death underreporting is not a new phenomenon in India. One of the main reasons for underreporting is that many deaths occur without medical intervention, so improving the health infrastructure is critical to resolving the puzzle, according to the experts.
The SBI report comes amid a debate over underreporting of violent deaths in the country, particularly after incidents such as bodies floating in the Ganga river or being thrown from bridges, with some estimates suggesting that the actual number of fatalities could be as high as ten times the number reported. Over 81 per cent of the births were ‘institutional’ in 2019 as against 56 per cent in 2009, while 34.5 per cent of the deaths did not receive any medical attention which leads to the probability of getting them registered being very less. ‘It also goes on to show that it is quite possible that no diagnosis was undertaken and disease and death underreporting is not a new phenomena in India.’
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