Patralekha Chatterjee | Covid-19 accountability: Making the dead count
Deccan ChronicleIn hyper-polarised India, it needs dollops of bravery for governments to admit that they got their Covid-19 death data wrong, that the magnitude of the problem they face in the time of the pandemic is more serious than they previously stated. Whatever be their motives, the states which are embracing greater data transparency deserve to be cheered even if by doing so, they push up India’s official Covid-19 death count. Public health experts who have been tracking the Covid 19 numbers stress the importance of making an honest attempt to not “show less numbers” by reporting all Covid-19 deaths, captured by routine death surveillance. “Accepting that under-reporting is an inescapable reality in India, we need regular local estimates of under-reporting to guide us regarding the true estimate of mortality,” says Dr Shevade, “This can be done through post-mortem surveillance of all Covid-19 deaths in sentinel sites. It’s true that the Indian Council of Medical Research has issued a “Guidance for appropriate recording of Covid-19 related deaths in India”, as the Centre likes to stress.