As India battles through one of the world’s deadliest surges of the Covid-19 pandemic, this week India’s health minister Harsh Vardhan insisted that its fatality rate from the disease remained “the lowest in the world”.
It was a statement that jarred with the devastating images and accounts that have flowed out of India in the past fortnight, of hospitals and morgues filled to capacity, people dying on pavements from scarcity of oxygen, and crematoriums and graveyards visibly overflowing with bodies.
India’s official death toll has continued to rise relentlessly. On Saturday, it was another record-breaking day, with 401,993 new cases and 3,523 deaths. Yet health experts widely believe the official daily figures do not come close to reflecting the real number of deaths.
