India’s coronavirus death toll crosses 500,000

[ghazi52]

India’s coronavirus death toll crosses 500,000

NEW DELHI: India’s official death toll from Covid-19 passed 500,000 on Friday, although many experts believe the real figure is likely much higher.

The daily update from the country’s federal health ministry showed the number of fatalities reaching 500,055, up 1,072 in the previous 24 hours.

Total infections stood at 41.9 million, according to the statistics, second only to the United States.

Case numbers have jumped in recent weeks due to the highly infectious Omicron strain but rates have slowed in recent days and the health ministry last week said there were indications of a plateau in virus cases in several parts of the country.

Experts said the Omicron wave would not cause many deaths or hospitalisations, but several states imposed restrictions on movement and have only now started easing them.

Authorities in the Delhi area that includes the capital on Friday announced high schools, colleges, restaurants and gyms would be allowed to open from next week.

After being shut for almost two years, first because of coronavirus and then again for pollution following a brief reopening, in-person classes for four- to 14-year-olds will restart on February 14, Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia tweeted.

India was hit by a devastating spike in cases last year due to the Delta variant that brought its health care system close to collapse.

Many analysts believe the country actually may have reached the 500,000-death mark last year itself.

The wave saw at least 200,000 deaths as hospitals ran out of oxygen and patients scrambled desperately to source medicines.

A study by a US research group last year suggested that anywhere between 3.4 million and 4.7 million people had died.

For months now, several states have been reconciling their death toll and adding “backlog” deaths as India’s Supreme Court ordered state authorities to provide compensation to families.

Kerala, Bihar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat are among those to have added thousands of old deaths to their existing tolls.

Last month, the Modi government asked states to stop mandatory testing of contacts of those who test positive, unless they had underlying health conditions...

 

[Maira La]

That's the official death count from Modi's government. In reality close to 6 million Indians died. Half of the bodies were thrown into rivers without cremation.

 

[Valar.]

@ghazi52 sahab, headline is of India while the news is about US. Kindly edit.

 

[ghazi52]

@ghazi52 sahab, headline is of India while the news is about US. Kindly edit.

Thank you very much !
Corrected.

 

[Ali_Baba]

Multiply by 10 to get the correct figure - we all saw how badly the earlier variants affected India.

 

[ghazi52]

India's COVID deaths cross 500,000 but some analysts count millions more​

India is currently in the midst of a third wave of the coronavirus led by the Omicron variant

Reuters
February 05, 2022

Healthcare worker Hemaben Raval collects a swab for a rapid antigen test from farmer Vinod Vajabhai Dabhi in his field, during a door-to-door vaccination drive amid the ongoing coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak in Banaskantha district in the western state of Gujarat, India, July 23, 2021. PHOTO: REUTERS

---

NEW DELHI: India's official COVID-19 death toll crossed 500,000 on Friday, a level some data analysts said was breached last year but was obscured by inaccurate surveys and unaccounted dead in the hinterlands, where millions remain vulnerable to the disease.

The country, which has the fourth-highest tally of deaths globally, recorded 400,000 deaths by July 2021 after the devastating outbreak from the Delta variant of the coronavirus, according to official data. Some believe the figures were much higher.
"Our study published in the journal Science estimates 3 million COVID deaths in India until mid-2021 using three different databases," Chinmay Tumbe, an assistant professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, who co-authored the study, told Reuters.

Last month, the Indian government dismissed the study as baseless in a notification saying there is a robust system of birth and death reporting.

India's states record deaths from COVID after collating data from their districts. In the last few months, several states have updated the number of deaths, some under pressure from the country's top court. In most instances, authorities said there were lapses due to delayed registrations and other administrative errors.

India is currently in the midst of a third wave of the coronavirus led by the Omicron variant, which some top experts say is already in community transmission although federal officials say most cases are mild.

Last month, the government eased testing norms and told states to drop mandatory testing for contacts of confirmed cases unless they were old or battling other conditions. But, with the number of tests falling, the government issued a revised circular warning states they would miss the spread of the virus.

According to official figures, India's overall number of COVID infections has reached 41.95 million, the second-highest globally behind the United States.
To prevent new surges, the government has vaccinated three-fourths of the eligible 939 million adult population with the mandatory two-dose regime.

Indian officials are carrying out a vaccination drive in remote parts of the country to increase lagging vaccination rates, with health workers going door-to-door to administer shots.

"I make them understand how important vaccines are to escape from coronavirus," health worker Asmita Koladiya, who is forced to take her infant daughter along with her because of a lack of childcare, told Reuters.

In the country's capital Delhi, as new infections of the Omicron variant fell sharply off the peak, authorities further eased curbs and said they will allow schools and colleges to reopen from Monday, and permit private offices to be fully staffed.

The city's sports complexes will also reopen, its Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said in a webcast on Friday.


RECONCILIATION WITH TIME, GRIEF


India's cumulative tally of 500,055 deaths on Friday included 1,072 fatalities reported over the last 24 hours, according to the federal health ministry. Out of this, 335 deaths were reported from the southern state of Kerala that has, for weeks, been updating data with deaths from last year.

Kerala, with less than 3% of India's 1.35 billion population, accounts for nearly 11% of the total deaths reported in the country.
"Some states such as Kerala are recording their backlog deaths under judicial pressure, although not all states have done that," said Gautam Menon, a professor of physics and biology at Ashoka University near the capital who has been tracking the spread of the virus.

In Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat, authorities have received over 100,000 claims for COVID-19 compensation, of which 87,000 claims have been approved, according to a senior government official.

The number of claims received is nearly 10 times the official COVID-19 death toll of 10,545, as per government data.

"There has not been any under-reporting of COVID-19 deaths...The policy for paying compensation is very liberal as per the Supreme Court's directives, which is why the number of applicants is more than the COVID-19 deaths," the official said, declining to be identified due to the sensitive nature of discussions.

Multiply by 10 to get the correct figure - we all saw how badly the earlier variants affected India.

 

[FuturePAF]

The number of claims received is nearly 10 times the official COVID-19 death toll of 10,545, as per government data.

This says it all. The death toll nationwide is probably closer now to 5 million and they have a new wave nowadays, so it could get worse. The world really needs to share mRNA technology so we can properly deal with this pandemic.

India's staggering COVID-19 death toll could be 6 million: Study

The study suggests 6 million people may have died.

www.google.com

Thankfully this wave in India isn’t as bad as the one last year, but that could still mean millions more may die for its all over.

India Coronavirus Map and Case Count (Published 2023)

See the latest charts and maps of coronavirus cases, deaths and vaccinations in India.

www.google.com

 

[Brainsucker]

This is dangerous, they can give a birth to a new dangerous variant of Covid 19 again, like Delta last year.

 

[FuturePAF]

This is dangerous, they can give a birth to a new dangerous variant of Covid 19 again, like Delta last year.

Exactly. Delta came out of India and with omicron circulating in India, the possibility this mutates in to something even worse, something that can breakthrough the vaccines and people’s previous immunity, is highly likely.

 

[mili]

Reality is closer to 6 million.
Some say zero covid policy is expensive but that's only because they give low value to their people's lives.

India's staggering COVID-19 death toll could be 6 million: Study

The study suggests 6 million people may have died.

abcnews.go.com

India's staggering COVID-19 death toll could be 6 million: Study​

The study suggests 6 million people may have died.
BySomayeh Malekian
23 December 2021, 12:02
• 4 min read

New research suggests that India’s COVID-19 death toll during its first and second waves might have been significantly undercounted, with the actual number potentially 12 times higher than the official stats -- over 6 million people.

That would be by far the highest COVID death toll in the world -- greater than the U.S. at more than 811,000.

India was devastated by a crushing wave of the delta variant in April and May, with supply shortages, makeshift clinics and images of funeral pyres burning nonstop.

There was a sense at the time that the number of deaths was an undercount and a study in July indicated that deaths could be 10 times the official toll, although that research had limitations.

The new study, by researchers in the U.S. and India from the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy, a public health research institute in Washington, D.C., indicates that the “reported COVID-19 deaths greatly underestimated pandemic-associated mortality” and was particularly acute among older and poorer people.
...........................

 

[SaadH]

BS, India's covid death toll is easily 20 times that amount.

 

[-blitzkrieg-]

India is the biggest receiver of covid aid money in the world..
more deaths mean more $$$$ in aid for Indian politicians who would want to happily tag fake covid deaths certs or fudge figures but they have to be careful they dont raise another global alarm.. millions die of various things in india every month and nobody bated an eye until this thing came up... ganga was filled with bodies even before covid..mass creamation was always happening there..it just got noticed now..