Disappointed How WHO Report On Excess COVID-19 Deaths Prepared: India At Geneva
The WHO had said that many countries did not accurately count COVID-19 deaths
Mumbai: Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said that India was disappointed with the manner in which the World Health Organization (WHO) prepared and published a report claiming that India witnessed millions of excess COVID-19 deaths.
While addressing the World Health Assembly (WHA) in Switzerland’s Geneva on Monday, 23 May, he said, ” India would like to express its disappointment over the manner in which the report by the WHO on all-cause excess mortality was prepared and published, ignoring the concern expressed by India and other countries over the methodology and sources of data, setting aside the country-specific authentic data from the statutory authority of India.”
The death toll due to COVID-19 in India is actually 10 times higher than the official figure, the WHO said on May 5, adding that 4.7 million more deaths have been reported in the country.
Mandaviya further said that the Central Council for Health and Family Welfare (CCHFW), a constitutional body comprising health ministers of all Indian states, had passed a unanimous resolution asking them to express their “collective disappointment ” in this regard.
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Speaking on access to vaccines against COVID-19, Mandaviya said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had highlighted the need to create “a resilient global supply chain to enable equitable access to vaccines and medicines streamlining the WHO’s approval process for vaccines, therapeutics and reforms.”
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The Union Minister also said that India is ready to play a role in this regard as well as strengthen the WHO to achieve a more “resilient” global health architecture.
The WHO had said that many countries did not accurately count COVID-19 deaths.
“The overdose death rate is calculated as the difference between the number of deaths and the number that would be expected in the absence of the pandemic, based on data from earlier years,” the WHO said in its report.
“Additional mortality includes deaths directly (due to disease) or indirectly (due to the pandemic’s impact on health systems and society) associated with COVID-19. Deaths linked indirectly to COVID-19 are attributable to other health conditions for which people could not access prevention and treatment because the pandemic overburdened health systems,” the report read.
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