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The Union Health Ministry of India on Saturday rubbished The Economist's recent report on COVID-19 death toll in India as "purely speculative". The report had claimed that "the government's numbers represent a disturbingly small fraction of the real figure".
“Yet as Indians emerge from lockdowns, it is not easy to shake off the gloom. True, the official death toll has fallen steadily for the past month, to half its peak of over 4,000 a day in mid-May. But evidence continues to accumulate that the government’s numbers represent a disturbingly small fraction of the real figure. This discrepancy does not just mean that the true level of India’s suffering has been glossed over,” economist wrote .
"It is noted that a renowned international magazine in its article has speculated that 'India has suffered perhaps five to seven times excess deaths than the official number of COVID-19 fatalities'. It is a speculative article, which is without any basis and seems to be misinformed," the Ministry said in a statement .
The ministry criticised the 'evidence' cited by the magazine is a study supposedly done by Christopher Laffler of Virginia Commonwealth University. An internet search of research studies in scientific database such as Pubmed, Research Gate, etc., did not locate this study and the detailed methodology of this study has not been provided by the magazine," the Ministry said.
"Another evidence given is the study done in Telengana based on insurance claims. Again, there is no peer reviewed scientific data available on such study," it added.
India has been criticised for “under reporting” deaths due to corona. Many international reports suggested that the actual deaths were five to 10 times more than what was actually reported.
https://www.economist.com/asia/2021/06/12/more-evidence-emerges-of-indias-true-death-toll-from-covid-19