Death toll ‘vast underestimate’

INDIA’S excess deaths during the pandemic could be a staggering 10 times the official Covid-19 toll, likely making it modern India’s worst human tragedy, according to the most comprehensive research yet on the ravages of the virus in the south Asian country.

The report released yesterday estimated excess deaths, the gap between those recorded and those that would have been expected, to be between three million to 4.7 million between January 2020 and June 2021.

India’s official toll is more than 414,000 dead.