San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
India stalls new death toll tally by U.N. agency
An ambitious effort by the World Health Organization to calculate the global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has found that vastly more people died than previously believed — a total of about 15 million by the end of 2021, more than double the official total of 6 million reported by countries individually.
But the release of the staggering estimate — the result of more than a year of research and analysis by experts and the most comprehensive look at the lethality of the pandemic to date — has been delayed for months because of objections from India, which disputes the calculation of how many of its citizens died and has tried to keep it from becoming public.
More than one-third of the additional 9 million deaths are estimated to have occurred in India, where the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stood by its own count of about 520,000. The WHO will show the country’s toll is at least 4 million, according to people familiar with the numbers who were not authorized to disclose them, which would give India the highest tally in the world, they said. The New York Times was unable to learn the estimates for other countries.
The WHO calculation combined national data on reported deaths with new information from localities and household surveys, and with statistical models that aim to account for deaths that were missed. Most of the difference in the new global estimate represents previously uncounted deaths, the bulk of which were directly from COVID-19; the new number also includes indirect deaths, like those of people unable to access care for other ailments because of the pandemic.
The delay in releasing the figures is significant because the global data is essential for understanding how the pandemic has played out and what steps could mitigate a similar crisis in the future.
The Times spoke with more than 10 people familiar with the data. The WHO had planned to make the numbers public in January, but the release has continually been pushed back.
A WHO spokesperson, Amna Smailbegovic, told the New York Times, “We aim to publish in April.”
India insists that the WHO’s methodology is flawed. It argued the process did not “hold scientific rigor and rational scrutiny as expected from an organization of the stature of the World Health Organization.”
An actor carries a cross during the Passion of Christ re-enactment Friday in Iztapalapa, a borough of Mexico City. Crowds returned this year after virus restrictions were lifted.
drawn a weeklong total of about 2 million spectators. But attendance was banned in 2020 and 2021 in hopes of preventing the spread of the coronavirus.
Iztapalapa borough president Clara Brugada said 1.8 million people had attended this year’s re-enactment and that “it occurred peacefully, without any serious incident.”
Similar pageants are staged across the region, including in Mexico’s tourist city of Taxco. The re-enactment in Iztapalapa was first performed after a cholera outbreak threatened the then rural hamlet.
fight the infection. He said he is following the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention protocol and quarantining.
The governor’s office said First Lady Fran DeWine was experiencing no symptoms and has tested negative. Both the governor and his wife have received two coronavirus vaccines and a booster.
DeWine’s diagnosis comes just 18 days before Ohio’s May 3 primary, in which he faces two Republican challengers, and just eight days before former President Donald Trump plans an Ohio rally.
mandate and allowing students and faculty to choose whether or not to wear a face covering in school buildings.
Besides dropping its mask mandate, Minneapolis Public Schools will discontinue universal contract tracing, officials said. That means families may not be notified if someone in their student’s class tests positive for COVID-19.
District officials also said that beginning Monday, fully vaccinated students and staff will no longer be required to isolate after COVID-19 exposure and the quarantine time for unvaccinated students and adults in the schools will drop from 10 days to five days.
However, they said, the quarantine period for those who test positive for COVID-19 will remain at 10 days. “MPS remains committed to maximizing in-person learning, meeting the academic and mental health needs of our students, and providing a safe learning environment for all,” Superintendent Ed Graff said in a statement.