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On Thursday (May 5), India rejected WHO estimates suggesting 4.7 million deaths in the country as a result of Covid-19, either directly or as a result of the pandemic's impact on health institutions and society.

According to the World Health Organization, there were 14.9 million deaths worldwide, with 4.7 million deaths in India. According to latest WHO estimates, the total death toll connected directly or indirectly with the coronavirus, known as "excess mortality," was roughly 14.9 million between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2021, with a range of 13.3 million to 16.6 million.

"Despite India's objections to the modelling exercise's procedure, methodology, and outcome, the WHO issued the excess mortality figures without appropriately addressing India's concerns. India further advised the WHO that, due to the availability of authentic data released by the Registrar General of India (RGI) through the Civil Registration System (CRS), mathematical models should not be utilised to predict excess mortality numbers for India "According to the Union Ministry of Health.

According to PTI, the WHO calculated the overall excess mortality connected with the Covid-19 epidemic in India to be 4,740,894.

"Estimates may not be regarded as the national statistics officially issued by India due to variations deriving from the data and methodologies utilised by WHO," the WHO wrote in a technical note for India.

India disputes the WHO's figures.

The WHO confessed that data for 17 Indian states was acquired from websites and media stories for use in their mathematical model, according to India. "Throughout the process of discourse, engagement, and communication with WHO, WHO has predicted different excess mortality figures for India, citing multiple models," the health ministry said.

In one of the WHO's models for computing excess mortality estimates, India has dropped the use of Global Health Estimates (GHE) 2019. "GHE is a rough approximation. As a result, a modelling approach that produces mortality estimates based on another estimate while completely ignoring the real data available in the country demonstrates a lack of academic rigour."

"In India, the test positivity rate, another critical variable cited by the WHO for Covid-19, was never uniform at any point in time." Because of its vastness, diversity, and population of 1.3 billion people, India has consistently opposed to the use of a "one size fits all" approach and paradigm, which may be applicable to smaller countries but cannot be applicable to India."