'...As the number of COVID-19 deaths and new cases continues to surge in India, the media briefing by the health ministry on Wednesday was less about actual numbers and more about drawing a comparison to show how India apparently did better than the world in general and worst-affected nations in particular. But the ministry did not provide any comparisons between the number of tests conducted in India and other countries...'
'...Testing, our Achilles heel, remains behind an iron curtain. The Indian Council for Medical Research, the organisation leading India’s fight against Covid-19 (especially with regards to testing), is a scientific research body. One would expect it to release readily accessible and detailed data on India’s testing numbers and trajectory using graphs and charts on its website. Instead, we see an almost inexplicable antipathy to sharing any sort of data. There is a single daily update on the total number of tests done in India.
'The number of Covid-19 deaths in Delhi has been under the scanner for discrepancies between the government figures and those the hospitals have reported, leading to an upwards revision to 115 until Thursday, 14 May. But now, data accessed by ThePrint raises new questions about even this revised number of deaths in the city. The consolidated figures for Covid-related deaths provided by the designated cremation and burial grounds in the national capital is 443, which includes confirmed as well as suspected cases...'
'Last week, The New Indian Express, one of India’s major English newspapers, pulled down an article that was heavily critical of the Centre’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak. The article, entitled ‘Centre’s COVID-19 Communication Plan: hold back data, gag agencies and scientists’, discussed the government’s reluctance to share outbreak-related data and attempts to muzzle scientists.
'In most developing countries, including India, the quality of data on the cause of death is very poor. This is because most people die in rural areas and at home, a medically certified death in a hospital is rare, and medical certificates more often than not are filled incorrectly. Dr Prabhat Jha, founding director of the Centre for Global Health Research in Toronto, is one of the world’s leading experts on mortality in India. He is a professor of disease control and an expert advisor to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as well as various governments...'
'The number of official Covid deaths in Malegaon in Maharashtra is just 12 since the first case in early April but, overall, the number of deaths in this city has shown an unusual surge. At 580 deaths for April, as per civic records obtained by The Indian Express, it’s almost twice the figure for the same month last year (277) and a 48 per cent jump over the number of deaths in March this year (see chart).
'Patients labelled as ‘suspected Covid’ during admission to hospitals here are not being tested for the novel coronavirus even after death in a bid to dress up infection figures, charged opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday. He said at least 44 bodies of ‘suspected Covid’ patients have been released from the civic-run Nair Hospital — a dedicated Covid-19 facility now — without the coronavirus test. There are several such instances from other hospitals too, said Fadnavis, who tweeted details of the letter he’s sent to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray...'
'...South Asia’s low Covid-19 cases have led experts to offer several theories. One of them is the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccine, used against tuberculosis. The BCG vaccination is universal in South Asia and has been connected, by some studies, to low instances of Covid-19. Similarly, some studies also show that heat could adversely affect the virus. Experts, however, advise caution on how much these two factors can be credited for low numbers in South Asia given what is known currently...
'A 25-year-old village resident reported sick at the Basti district hospital on March 28. For more than two days, he was shunted from ward to ward and hospital to hospital before he finally died in Gorakhpur, the largest city in eastern Uttar Pradesh, 70 km from Basti. He would be the first confirmed coronavirus casualty in the state. The 48 hours leading up to his death paint a grim picture of provincial India’s health infrastructure and bare the lack of preparedness or even training to handle the pandemic...'
'Enumerators tasked with carrying out surveys for various state and central agencies are facing a tough time dealing with Hyderabad residents in the wake of protests against the amended Citizenship Law and fears over the National Register of Citizens (NRC). On Wednesday afternoon, as seen in a video that has gone viral on social media, two women surveyors could be seen stopped and questioned by a resident in the Malakpet area. “Don’t you know what is the prevailing situation in the city? Protests are happening all across in connection with NPR, NRC, and CAA.
