Dear MEL Topic Readers,
Covid-19: India excess deaths cross four million, says study
As of July 20, 31.2 million Covid cases and 414,000 deaths to date were reported in India, which represents the fatality rate of just 1.3%, approximately 1% fewer than the average of the rest of the countries. Are Indians more resistant to Covid or are India’s death numbers unreliable? For a country with a population of 1.4 billion and scarce medical resources especially in remote villages, it takes some effort to find actual numbers or make a reliable estimate. One way to estimate the number of deaths is to use excess deaths, a measure of how many more people have died than would be expected compared to the previous years. In other words, finding how many more funeral services have taken place compared to the past. But it is not so simple. India conducts a national census only once a decade. Also, the subcontinent is so diverse and dispersed. So, researchers took samples and made an estimate for the whole. They found that India’s death toll should have been around four million. The figure is much higher than the official record, but the death ratio is not so different from other countries.
If the same methodologies were applied, what are the real numbers like in Brazil and other developing countries?
Enjoy reading the article and learn about how to figure and use excess deaths.https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-57888460
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