Thread:

**The scale of our tragedy**

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.

(1/n)
Two remaining pages of today’s edition:

(2/n)
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.

(3/n)
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.

(4/n)
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.

(6/n)
Each of those who died deserved to live, just like you & me.

(n/n)

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More from @deepakpatel_91

25 Apr
*The enormity & invisibility of our tragedy*

4 out of 16 pages of Kutchmitra newspaper's Bhuj edition yesterday contained obituaries.

There were total 117 obituaries: 93 text-only and 24 with photos.

But Gujarat govt says no one has died of Covid in Kutch in last 3 days.

1/n ImageImageImageImage
Guj govt says zero persons have died due to Covid in Kutch between Thursday & Saturday. (see attached pics)

Kutch, the westernmost district of India, has a population of around 21 lakhs (as per 2011 census).

2/n ImageImageImage
Also, Kutchmitra's Editor Deepak Mankad yesterday questioned Guj govt's statistics.

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.

3/n Image
Read 10 tweets
23 Apr
The scale of our tragedy:

8 out of 20 pages in Sandesh newspaper’s Rajkot edition contain obituaries today.

There are 152 obituaries with photos of the deceased.

There are 133 text-only obituaries in a single page.

Total 285. (1/9)
Remaining 4 pages:
These people have become just a statistic for govt. However, each of them deserved to live like you & me.

Since 40% of the newspaper is filled with obituaries, we can safely say most of them died due to COVID-19.

As a small tribute, I roughly translate 6 of the 285 obituaries:
Read 10 tweets

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