THE MISSING DEAD

It’s now common knowledge that official Covid death figures grossly understate the reality. But why did this happen— systemic failure or worse?

- KAUSHIK DEKA

SHALLOW GRAVES

Relatives carry a body past exposed graves—many of them believed to be of Covid victims—at a cremation ground on the banks of the Ganges, in Shringverpur, northwest of Allahabad, May 20

In the first week of April, Manoj Tomar, 40, a daily wage earner from JP Nagar in Old Bhopal, got a cough and fever that wouldn’t go away. A breathless Tomar, suspecting he had Covid, looked for a testing centre but there was none nearby. On April 7, he went to a local quack, a “jhola chaap” doctor. A rapid antigen test detected the Covid virus in his body, but Manoj could not find a bed at any of the government hospitals. Later that evening, he died. A week later, his brother Jitendra, 38, also developed symptoms but was able to get himself admitted at the Government Hamidia Hospital, where he too tested positive for Covid. Later, he also died. While the family got a death certificate from the hospital stating that Jitendra had died of Covid, they had no such luck with Manoj.

The story of the two brothers from Bhopal illustrates the irony in India’s management of Covid dead statistics. The importance of an accurate death count came into focus again following a recent Supreme Court order asking the Centre to pay ex gratia compensation to the families of those who had died of Covid (see box