Thread by @muradbanaji

Some news reports on COVID-19 death undercounting in India... 1/

West Bengal: 50% of deaths (late March to April) were omitted on account of comorbidities before a "reconciliation" in early May. (Modelling suggests undercounting continued after this.)
hindustantimes.com/india-news/cov…

Delhi. Many deaths went "missing" between mid-April and mid-May. Some were added back over the next month. (Modelling suggests at least 3/4 of deaths were missing at the worst point, and the reconciliation was probably incomplete.) thewire.in/government/del…

Tamil Nadu. Only about half of the COVID-19 deaths recorded by the Greater Chennai Corporation had made it to the state register by early June (scroll.in/latest/964371/…). More have since been going missing from the official count. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/2…).

Maharashtra added 1328 "backlog" fatalities on June 16th, 862 in Mumbai alone. Mumbai in particular added a total of about 1750 old deaths over 3 weeks starting June 10th. (Modelling suggests that the reconciliation was still very incomplete.)
thehindu.com/news/national/…

Mumbai – this piece details a number of suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients who died and whose names did not make it into the official figures *even after the June 16th data reconciliation*.
indianexpress.com/article/cities…

Madhya Pradesh. A big mismatch between crematorium and graveyard data, and MP govt's COVID-19 death data for Bhopal (late June). About half of all deaths missing.
newsclick.in/COVID-19-Madhy…

Gujarat (Vadodara): Dead co-morbid patients considered 'discharged'. Although the report is about Vadodara, the problem of omitting deaths of patients with comorbidities seems to be state policy.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/vadodara/…

Telangana. Hospital and mortuary workers – mostly poorly paid and vulnerable contract workers – describe a major mismatch between the deaths they are seeing and the state’s official toll.
deccanchronicle.com/nation/current…

Gujarat (Surat, 15/07). “Claims made by NGO that helps SMC conduct last rites of deceased Covid patients, crematorium managers, councillor suggest that deaths are higher than the official figures; authority claims comorbid cases not counted as Covid ones”
ahmedabadmirror.indiatimes.com/ahmedabad/othe…

Delhi (again). 18/07. A smaller mismatch now, but still there.
theprint.in/health/covid-d…

Telangana. 16/07. Suspected COVID patients die while waiting for test results. Many probably don't make it into the statistics.
deccanchronicle.com/nation/current…

MP - Indore: 50 COVID19 deaths from April added into the tally in July.
epapers.peoplessamachar.in/epaper/m/36512…

Tamil Nadu adds 444 “reconciled” deaths.
newindianexpress.com/states/tamil-n…

Telangana: "...the deaths are registered as co-morbid condition. Only if the person dies due to breathing problem and is infected with the virus, the audit committee registers it as Covid-19 death..."
dailypioneer.com/uploads/2020/e…

Madhya Pradesh (also Gujarat, Telangana and several other states). @PriyankaPulla's detailed piece on *how* #COVID19 deaths go missing from official statistics in India.
science.thewire.in/health/india-m…

Telangana, again. "Suspected, non-tested and negative report-based deaths are not being registered by the government as there is no proof of the COVID-19 test results and families are unwilling to have the name of the disease on the death certificate."
deccanchronicle.com/nation/current…

Ghaziabad (UP): August 21. A mismatch between official #COVID19 fatality figures and crematorium records. timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ghaziabad…

Rajkot (Gujarat). A mismatch between hospital data and official #COVID19 deaths.

Assam:

Rajkot (Gujarat) again. The scale of the mismatch is astonishing: 94 deaths according to the municipal council, 1247 bodies according to burial and crematorium records.
theprint.in/india/rajkot-s…

Odisha: "...going by reports, there is a huge mismatch between the State’s total death toll and deaths being reported from districts."
thehindu.com/news/national/…

Delhi - municipal data 16% higher than the govt bulletin: "The data with the three municipal bodies pegs Delhi's death toll at 6,437 as of 5 October. The Delhi government health bulletin, however, puts the death toll at 5,542 deaths on the same day."
theprint.in/health/differe…

A couple more for this thread...

Gujarat: as Ahmedabad saw a surge in cases in November 2020, a familiar story; the official death toll did not match the reality at crematoria.
thewire.in/government/ahm…

Kerala: systematic undercounting of COVID deaths picked up by volunteers tracking local newspapers and news channels.


By November 2020, the tally of COVID deaths tracked in this way was 70% higher than the official tally.
bbc.com/news/world-asi…

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): the city had just 13 recorded COVID deaths from 1-30 March. But there were 18 COVID funerals on March 30 alone. The article has a table implying 90 COVID funerals upto 30/03. The text mentions 132 funerals during March.
bhaskar.com/local/mp/bhopa…

Bharuch district, Gujarat. 545 bodies cremated so far according to COVID protocols in a special COVID cemetery. But the official count of COVID deaths is just 33.

Gujarat again (Ahmedabad). The numbers are shocking.

Gujarat: Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Rajkot. Relentless dishonesty from the state government, but thankfully an active media with reporters on the ground going to hospitals and crematoria.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/vadodara/…

UP: "The cumulative official Covid death count released by the government in the last seven days is 124. However... over 400 people who died because of the virus had been cremated during the same period."
ndtv.com/india-news/utt…

Madhya Pradesh (Bhopal). On Thursday April 15, Bhopal saw 112 COVID protocol funerals. According to government figures there were 4 COVID deaths that day. During the previous 5 days: 356 COVID funerals. According to government figures: 21 deaths.