THE Indian government has said that several Indian states are now "reconciling" their Covid death data after dealing with a spike in cases in April and May.
It rejected recent studies suggesting that millions of people have died in the country from Covid-19, several times the official toll of almost 420,000.
On Tuesday (20) a study by US research group the Center for Global Development suggested anywhere from 3.4 million to 4.7 million people had died in India, between eight and 11 times the official number.
That would give the country the world's highest number of fatalities. Currently its official toll of 419,000 trails the US on 610,000 and Brazil with 545,000.
The study is the latest to cast doubt on India's official numbers, pointing to poor record-keeping and the death rate per million being around half the global average.
Researchers have looked in particular at "excess mortality", the number of additional fatalities compared with normal times, and death rates in other countries.
But the Indian government said Thursday it was an "audacious assumption that the likelihood of any given infected person dying is the same across countries".
The studies, it said, ignored "factors such as race, ethnicity, the genomic constitution of a population, previous exposure levels to other diseases and the associated immunity developed in that population".
Assuming that all excess deaths were from coronavirus was "not based on facts and totally fallacious", the government said.
It added that India has a "thorough contact tracing strategy", a "vast availability" of testing labs and that while some cases may go undetected, "missing out on deaths is unlikely".
The statement however left some room for blame against local authorities, saying the health ministry "only compiles and publishes data sent by the state governments" and that it had been "repeatedly advising" states on properly recording deaths.
States overwhelmed by the surge in April and May have now been "advised to conduct thorough audits that could have been missed", and several have in recent weeks updated their figures, it said.
Maharashtra, India's worst-hit state, has upped its death toll by around 15,000 while Bihar added about 4,000 and Madhya Pradesh 1,500.
This photograph taken on April 28, 2026 shows a boy getting "thali", a sacred thread tied to his neck symbolising marriage to Hindu warrior god Aravan during the annual Koovagam transgender festival at the Koothandavar temple in Tamil Nadu's Kallakurichi district. For a few fleeting days each year, at the heart of the Koothandavar Temple where ostracised transgender community members from across India come to honour the Hindu deity Aravan, a tradition rooted in millennia-old Hindu texts -- and to enjoy a brief oasis of freedom.Getty Images
This photograph taken on April 29, 2026 shows a member of the transgender community mourning as a priest cuts the "thali", a sacred thread symbolising end of her marriage to Hindu warrior god Aravan during the annual Koovagam transgender festival at the Koothandavar temple in Tamil Nadu's Kallakurichi district. For a few fleeting days each year, at the heart of the Koothandavar Temple where ostracised transgender community members from across India come to honour the Hindu deity Aravan, a tradition rooted in millennia-old Hindu texts -- and to enjoy a brief oasis of freedom. Getty Images
