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The increase in death registration in calendar year 2020 as compared to 2019 is not entirely due to Covid fatalities, NITI Aayog member V K Paul has asserted. He said "exorbitant" multiples of coronavirus deaths being published by some agencies with respect to India must stop.
As an example, Paul, who is also the Covid-19 Task Force chief, referred to a recent publication in the Lancet which claimed that India's estimated cumulative Covid deaths between January 2020 and December 2021 was over eight times higher than reported.
The documented deaths due to Covid in India over that period was around 4,89,000, the Lancet had claimed in its paper entitled 'Estimating excess mortality due to the Covid-19 pandemic: a systematic analysis of Covid-19-related mortality, 2020-21'. It had also claimed that India's estimated cumulative excess deaths due to Covid between the period were the highest in the world at 4.07 million.
The government on Tuesday published the Civil Registration System (CRS) report 2020 based on birth and death reports.
In case of registered deaths, the number has gone up from 76.4 lakh in 2019 to 81.2 lakhs in 2020, an increase of 6.2 per cent, the RGI's report 'Vital Statistics of India based on the Civil Registration System' for 2020 said.
"Now that the actual count of excess deaths from all the causes are available, there is no rationale for using modelling-driven estimates based on pure conjectures and assumptions," Paul told PTI.
He pointed out that compared to the calendar year 2018, excess mortality in 2019 stood at 6.9 lakh.
The findings of the CRS study assumes significance with India recently questioning the World Health Organisation's methodology to estimate Covid mortality in the country, saying mathematical modelling cannot be applied to estimate the death figures for such a vast nation of geographical size and population.
Covid deaths were 1.49 lakh in 2020, according to official data based on a robust surveillance system set up for Covid, he said.
"The number of deaths are also being corrected and reconciled by states," Paul said, adding that this is a transparent and accountable system.
According to him, more death registration is also happening because people are conscious, people need death certificates for property, and other purposes.
"And generally also, due to ease of operation and digitatisation, people are coming forward. The population size also increases every year, contributing to more deaths," Paul said.
He pointed out that excess death registration has been noted in previous years despite a declining death rate and no outbreaks.
"So, we must remember that extra deaths are not due to Covid-19 deaths, but there are other reasons and causes as well," he asserted.
The NITI Aayog member also noted that the increase in population also must have contributed to deaths.
He said the CRS report is based on data from the ground level and data from across districts are captured meticulously. This information based on birth and death registration is a pillar of public policy.
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