Goemkarponn Desk
DELHI: Responding to media reports that claimed that India’s COVID-19 death toll has been undercounted, the Union Health Ministry on Wednesday called such reports ‘conjectures and speculation without any substantial basis’. In a statement, the health ministry said the reports, based on data from the National Health Mission’s Health Management Information System (HMIS) compared data from the Civil Registration System (CRS) and drew ‘erroneous inferences’.
Media reports had allegedly cited death numbers reported in the HMIS and said in the absence of other information, these deaths should all be considered as COVID-19 deaths. Over 2,50,000 deaths were from causes not known, the reports added.
“Attributing any death to COVID-19 without any basis than based on empirical data is fallacious and such inferences are mere figments of imagination,” the health ministry said.
The ministry further reiterated the Centre’s transparency in its approach to COVID-19 data management and said a robust system of recording all COVID-19 related deaths already exists.
States and Union Territories update the data in this particular system on a continuous basis, the ministry’s statement said, adding that in order to avoid inconsistency, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had also issued ‘Guidance for appropriate recording of COVID-19 related deaths in India’.
