Delhi, Goa have most Covid deaths per 100k: Govt data

NEW DELHI: Delhi and Goa have the highest Covid deaths per one lakh population (DPL) in the country whereas Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha have lower rates, government data shows.

These inferences are based on the health ministry’s Covid and vaccination data for May 15 and population projections for 2021 by the Census Commissioner of India and come at the time when some states are being accused of hiding actual death figures.

“One thing clear from the data analysis is that some states such as Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh are hiding death numbers in a big way,” said James Wilson, a data analyst and member of the advisory committee of the Kerala Electricity Board, who has been analysing the health ministry’s Covid data for the past year.

According to health ministry data, Goa has the highest death rate per one lakh population of 131.88 with 2,056 deaths reported. About one-fourth of these deaths took place during the second Covid wave that started in March 2020. On Goa’s high death per population rate, chief minister Pramod Sawant said it was on account of the state’s “complete transparency” in testing and death records. “In Goa we make sure that every Covid death is counted. Even if a person dies without being tested we conduct his test post-mortem and if he is Covid positive we include that,” he said.

After Goa, Delhi has second highest DPL of 101, followed by Uttarakhand’s 40.57. Delhi government officials did not comment on the findings.

Uttarakhand chief secretary Om Prakash said the state was transparent in reporting Covid cases and deaths even though several deaths of outsiders during the Mahakumbh were recorded in the state figures.

Gujarat, which has been repeatedly accused of hiding Covid deaths, has a much lower DPL of 12.95. Divya Bhaskar, a Gujarati daily newspaper, on Friday reported that the state issued 121,000 death certificates between March 1 and May 10 this year, 61,000 more than in the same period last year. Although the government did not deny the figures, junior home minister Pratapsinh Jadeja said it was “mischievous” to corelate death certificates with Covid and accused the newspaper of trying to create a sensation.

Gujarat’s neighbouring state of Maharashtra, which reported high Covid cases since March, had a DPL of almost 70, the highest among large population states. Karnataka has a DPL of 32, Chhattisgarh 39.30, Punjab 38.54, Andhra Pradesh 17.56 and Tamil Nadu 22.72. On the lower side are Bihar with 3.04, Telangana with 7.46 and Odisha with 5.21. However, Bihar’s neighbouring state

Jharkhand’s figure is 11.52 and West Bengal’s 13.39.

Uttar Pradesh has a DPL of 7.47, with 4,623 total Covid deaths reported so far, even as there have been reports of over 800 dead bodies found buried on the banks of the Ganga river in Kanpur, Gazipur and Unnao districts. The state has refuted the charge of hiding data, saying Covid deaths were being reported as per the Indian Council for Medical Research guidelines that prohibit recording of Covid deaths of people with co-morbidities. “We are strictly following ICMR guidelines and the data shows how effective our Covid management was,” said a government official.

Madhya Pradesh, where burials and cremations as per Covid protocols in Indore, Bhopal and Jabalpur were almost double of the deaths reported, had a DPL of 8.18 with 6,913 total deaths. In Bhopal, close to 1,400 people were cremated with Covid protocols since April 1 even as official Covid deaths were only 425, said activist Seema Kurup. State health minister Prabhuram Chaudhary said, “We did a door-to-door survey to identify Covid cases and our timely action is the main reason behind low death rate.”

However, a recent report by the Seattle-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington estimated that actual Covid deaths in India as of May 6 may be 0.654 million, almost three times of the official count of 0.221 million.