6 out of 17 pages of Gujarat Samachar’s Rajkot edition today contain obituaries.
The newspaper contains total 267 obituaries -- 124 with photos in 5 pages and 143 text-only in a single page.
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Two remaining pages of today’s edition:
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2 months back, on Feb 26, Gujarat Samachar’s Rajkot edition had just 1 out of 17 pages for obituaries.
There were 43 obituaries — 24 with photos and 19 text-only — on that single page.
The difference is huge — 267 today vs 43 on Feb 26.
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Not every one whose name is in obituaries today died of COVID.
But since the difference is so huge (267 vs 43), we can safely say COVID-19 is the cause of death for most of those mentioned in obituaries.
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But, what does Guj govt’s statistics for yesterday say?
It says only 13 people died due to COVID in Rajkot yesterday.
It says 4 persons each died of COVID in 4 districts — Morbi, Bhavnagar, Surendranagar & Dwarka.
It says no one died of COVID in Amreli & Porbandar.
(5/n)
You can guess why there are 267 obituaries in just 1 edition of 1 of the local papers today if official COVID death count for Rajkot is only around 12-16 per day.
Also, you can guess why there is a need for 3 new cremation grounds in Rajkot now.
In his editorial, he said when relatives these days are asked the cause of death of the deceased - whose obituary has to be published - most of them reply with one answer only: Corona.