Govt. denounces study on excess Covid-19 mortality in India as 'misleading'

New Delhi: The Union government on Saturday dismissed claims of excess mortality during the Covid-19 pandemic in India, as reported in a study led by Indian-origin researchers from Oxford University and published in the US-based academic journal Science Advances, calling them a “gross and misleading overestimate.”

The study suggested that India experienced 17 percent higher mortality or 1.19 million more deaths in 2020 compared to the previous year. This figure is eight times higher than the official Covid death count in India and 1.5 times higher than estimates by the World Health Organization.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) criticized the study, stating that its findings are “based on untenable and unacceptable estimates” and that the methodology is flawed. The ministry shared data from the Civil Registration System (CRS), a national portal for registering births and deaths, indicating that deaths in India increased by 474,000 in 2020 compared to 2019.

The ministry pointed out that similar increases in death registration were observed in previous years, with 486,000 more deaths in 2018 and 690,000 in 2019 over their respective preceding years. It emphasized that not all excess deaths can be attributed to the pandemic, as the increase could also be due to a higher rate of death registration and a larger population base.

According to the MoHFW, India recorded approximately 530,000 deaths due to Covid-19. The ministry also criticized the study’s use of data from the National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5), noting that the survey only covered 23 percent of households in 14 states and was conducted between January and April 2021, making it unrepresentative of the entire country.

The ministry cited data from India’s Sample Registration System (SRS), which covers about 8.4 million people in 2.4 million households across 8,842 sample units in 36 states and union territories. This data showed "very little, if any, excess mortality in 2020 compared with 2019," with crude death rates remaining stable at 6.0 per 1,000 in both years.

Contrary to the study's claims of higher female mortality, the MoHFW highlighted that research data consistently shows higher Covid-19 mortality in males than females (2:1) and significantly higher mortality in older age groups compared to children.

Source: IANS