A new paper published in the Lancet discloses that the COVID-119 deaths in India were highly under-reported and by the end of 2021, at 4.07 million, the country had the highest figure of cumulative excess deaths globally.

The paper stated that around 18•2 million people were estimated to have died worldwide because of the pandemic by December 31, 2021, though the reported COVID-19 deaths between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2021 were 5•9 million globally. India topped the list with the highest number of cumulative excess deaths due to COVID-19 at 4.07 million, followed by the US (1.13 million), and Russia (1.07 million).

India officially reported 4,89,000 COVID deaths over the study period with a mortality rate of 18.3 deaths per 1,00,000. But the study calculated the excess deaths figure to be 8-fold higher at 4.07 million. It estimated that India had 152.5 excess deaths per 1,00,000 population during the study period. About 22•3% of global excess COVID deaths could be attributed to India, as of December 31, 2021. (ET Healthworld, March 10, 2022)