Covid: India disputes the 4 million deaths attributed to it by a WHO study

Europe 1 with AFP 3:41 p.m., April 18, 2022

India challenges the methodology of a forthcoming study by the World Health Organization (WHO) which draws up a new toll of the victims of Covid-19 in the world and revises the death toll to at least four million. country.

Official Indian figures show 520,000 deaths from the coronavirus pandemic, the third highest death toll in the world, behind the United States and Brazil.

Indian Ministry of Health doubts 

According to the New York Times (NYT) last week, New Delhi has blocked the publication of a WHO study for several months, according to which this figure is eight times higher.

Responding to the NYT article, India's health ministry argues that WHO's mathematical modeling was "questionable" and "statistically unproven", in a statement released over the weekend.

According to the ministry, India has raised its doubts through several official communications and meetings since November.

“A satisfactory response has not yet been received from WHO,” he added.

The WHO was not immediately available for comment.

4,000 deaths per day at the height of the pandemic

The WHO study matches similar calculations published by the journal Lancet last month and a study published in February in the journal Science that suggested at least 3.2 million Covid deaths in India.

Indian authorities had previously challenged the methodology of the Lancet and Science studies.

The country remains haunted by the terrible wave of Covid-19 in the spring of 2021. At the height of the pandemic, in May, India recorded more than 400,000 new contaminations and some 4,000 deaths per day.