India objects to WHO's claims of 4.7 mn Covid deaths

New Delhi: The mathematical model used by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to project excess mortality estimates has come under the scanner as India has strongly objected to the WHO's method to assess the mortality estimates linked to the Coronavirus pandemic in view of the availability of authentic data.

In a statement, the Union Health ministry said on Thursday that the validity and robustness of the models used and the methodology of data collection are questionable.

Notably, in a report released on Thursday, the WHO estimated that nearly 15 million people were killed either by the Coronavirus or by its impact on overwhelmed health systems in the past two years, more than double the official death count of 6 million. Most of the fatalities were in Southeast Asia, Europe and the Americas.

According to the report, there were 4.7 million (4,740,894) Covid deaths in India — 10 times the official figures and almost a third of Covid deaths globally. As per a Health ministry official, India is likely to raise the issue at the World Health Assembly and required multilateral forums.

Meanwhile, India logged 3,275 new infections in a day, pushing the number of active cases to 19,719 and the overall tally to 4,30,91,393, according to the ministry data updated Thursday.

The data released at 8 am also showed that 55 fatalities — 52 of them from Kerala alone — were reported in a 24-hour span, taking the cumulative death toll to 5,23,975.

India has been consistently objecting to the methodology adopted by the WHO to project excess mortality estimates based on mathematical models, the ministry said in a statement.

"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," it said.

India had also informed the WHO that in view of the availability of authentic data published through Civil Registration System (CRS) by the Registrar General of India (RGI), mathematical models should not be used for projecting excess mortality numbers for India.

"Registration of births and deaths in India is extremely robust and is governed by decades-old statutory legal framework, i.e. 'Births & Deaths Registration Act, 1969'. The civil registration data, as well as sample registration data released annually by the RGI, has been used by a large number of researchers, policymakers and scientists both domestically and globally," it said.