Covid-19 live updates: India records 2,827 new cases, slight dip since yesterday

A healthcare worker collects a swab sample from a passenger for Covid-19 testing amid a surge in coronavirus cases, at a railway station in Prayagraj, Tuesday. (PTI)While the trend of increasing regrations of deaths in India continued in 2020 as well, Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state, saw a big drop, despite the fact that the total number of deaths would probably have risen due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to data from the Civil Regration System (CRS), Uttar Pradesh regered 8.73 lakh deaths in 2020, down from 9.44 lakh deaths regered in 2019.
Kerala, Telangana, Uttarakhand and Delhi also saw a drop in death regrations in 2020 as compared to the previous year. In fact, in percentage terms, Telangana regered a 11 per cent decline as compared to a 7.5 per cent fall in UP.

Why there’s no agreement on India’s Covid death figures
With the images from the Covid pandemic, of burning pyres and floating bodies, still fresh in our minds, the current debate on the magnitude of mortality during 2020 and 2021 looks surreal and unsympathetic. There are two extreme positions. One, that the government is showcasing the whole episode as yet another successful management effort underreporting the number, and the other, that is projecting India to be the biggest contributor to the death pool globally using fragmented data and macro-level modelling. deaths per thousand population, India, however, does not figure among the top 100 countries, though the infection fatality rate of 1.2 per cent places it in seventh position globally.

As accurate death statics causes is hard to come — around 70 per cent of deaths take place at homes even in normal times — attempts have been made to estimate the Covid deaths identifying “excess” deaths over what would have been the number otherwise. There are conceptual issues involved since deaths due to starvation, returnee migrants miseries, those linked to the lockdown, unemployment, and other ailments not receiving medical help due to pressure on the system, are not due to Covid, but are part of excess deaths. Also, the Supreme Court’s decision to consider all deaths within three months of Covid infliction as Covid deaths resulted in a surge in reporting. Similarly, the lives saved due to the lockdown and measures adopted people to protect themselves from the virus and those who would have died due to other causes had there been no Covid, would have to be taken on the positive side, increasing the discrepancy between Covid and excess death.