The central government has dismissed the recent NYT report on COVID-19 death toll in India as “baseless and false”. The New York Times report, based on the inputs of consultation of over a dozen experts, estimated that in a conservative scenario, India had suffered over 6 lakh deaths due to COVID-19, twice the official count recorded by the government.
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare called the report false as it was based on “distorted estimates”.
Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the ministry, said, “It is completely baseless and absolutely false and not backed on any evidence”. He added, “The question does not arise that COVID-related deaths are getting concealed because, since the beginning, our efforts have been that all cases and deaths are reported in a transparent manner. It is also necessary so that we can understand the overall trajectory of infection and what efforts have to be made so that required actions can be taken for it.”
NYT estimated three scenarios - the best case with 40 crore infections and 6 lakh deaths, the “more likely scenario” with 53.9 crore infections and 16 lakh deaths and the worst-case scenario with 70 crore infections and 42 lakh deaths.
India’s official figure stands at 2.75 crore infections and 3.18 lakh deaths.
Dr. V.K. Paul, Member NITI Ayog (Health), has said that the numbers in the report are due to “distorted estimates” that have been done “ad-hoc without any basis”.
“On what basis this group pulls out an infection mortality rate of 0.3 percent in one scenario and 0.15 percent in another scenario and 0.6 in another? On what basis, this is just an assumption and a feeling of some people and this is something that should have been not published particularly in so-called prestigious publication. I submit that we have a strong mortality tracking system which has stood the test of time,” Paul was quoted as saying in a PTI report.
