Pandemic Revisited ~ II

Considering 2021 alone, the Government reported 3.32 lakh deaths due to Covid-19, but there were 21.5 lakh excess deaths in 2021, for which there is no explanation ~ except Covid-19.

- BY DEVENDRA SAKSENA

Reasons like maturer reporting processes leading to higher registration levels are offered to explain the annual increase in deaths registered in the Civil Registration System (CRS), but an increase of 25 per cent in a single year is statistically too significant to be attributed to any routine reason. Since the Registrar General's report is only a compilation of the statistics supplied by States, it may be instructive to analyse State-wise data. Gujarat reported 5,800 Covid-19 deaths in 2021 but nearly 2 lakh excess deaths were reported which would mean under-reporting by 33 times; Madhya Pradesh under-reported deaths by 18 times, West Bengal by 15 times, and so on.

It would appear that Governments were economical with the truth, probablywith a view to justify their response to the rampaging pandemic. India has some of the world's finest doctors, hospitals and medical staff. India is also the world's largest producer of vaccines and an exporter of medical grade oxygen. So, theoretically, we had adequate resources to fight the pandemic. But our managerial capacities are such that we often turn opportunities into adversities.

So, ironically, but not surprisingly, India faced huge shortages of both vaccine shots and oxygen leading to heartrending stories of patients dying for lack of oxygen, doctors themselves succumbing to Covid-19 infections, over-full hospitals turning away seriously ill patients, endless queues of ambulances waiting outside hospitals and devastating fire accidents in ICUs.

The rampaging Coronavirus pandemic fully overwhelmed our healthcare system; the first wave of the pandemic left us gasping, and the second wave totally submerged us. Our weaknesses in governance, planning, healthcare, civic amenities and civic sense stood cruelly exposed. In the second half of March 2020, when Covid-19 was making its entry in India, our leaders convinced themselves that a lockdown for a few weeks would eliminate the virus.