Modi Govt denies WHO’s excess Covid-19 death numbers

A debate has erupted over a World Health Organization (WHO) report suggesting that Covid-19 mortality in India was nearly ten times higher than government numbers. The WHO stated that the coronavirus pandemic caused about 15 million fatalities worldwide and roughly a third of the excess deaths globally, 4.74 million, took place in India.

However, India’s official Covid death toll is 4,81,486 between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2021.

In India, WHO said, Covid deaths started rising significantly towards the second half of 2020. The report said that more than half of India’s excess deaths could be traced to just three months in 2021 April, May, and June.

However, the



Indian government has rejected the figure, saying the methodology is flawed. In an official statement, the Union Health Ministry said that India had been consistently objecting to the methodology adopted by WHO to project excess mortality estimates based on mathematical models.

“Despite India’s objection to the process, methodology and outcome of this modelling exercise, WHO has released the excess mortality estimates without adequately addressing India’s concerns,” the Health Ministry said.

However, this is not the first time when the Indian government has rejected a report by an international agency. There have been several occasions in the past when the Indian Government rejected such reports.