NEW YORK, Apr 17 (APP): A leading American newspaper, in a story about the World Health Organization’s efforts to make global Covid-19 death toll public,says that the UN health agency estimate will show that India’s death toll is at least four million, almost eight times the official numbers.
According to The New York Times, the WHO calculates a total of 15 million people died globally by the end of 2021, out of which four million deaths were in India.
“The release of the staggering estimate — the result of more than a year of research
and analysis by experts around the world and the most comprehensive look at the
lethality of the pandemic to date — has been delayed for months because of objections
from India, which disputes the calculation of how many of its citizens died and has tried
to keep it from becoming public, The newspaper said in a dispatch.
“More than a third of the additional nine million deaths are estimated to have occurred in India, where the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stood by its own count of about 520,000. The WHO will show the country’s toll is at least four million, the Times said, citing people familiar with the numbers, which would give India the highest tally in the world.
“The delay in releasing the figures is significant because the global data is essential for understanding how the pandemic has played out and what steps could mitigate a similar
crisis in the future,” it said.
“It’s important for global accounting and the moral obligation to those who have died, but also important very practically. If there are subsequent waves, then really understanding the death total is key to knowing if vaccination campaigns are working,” said Dr. Prabhat Jha, director of the Centre for Global Health Research in Toronto and a member of the expert working group supporting the WHO’s excess death calculation.
“And it’s important for accountability,” he added.
APP/ift