covid death toll

Covid Excess Death Study Revives Debate on Government’s No-Undercounting Claim

The Union government is always quick in rejecting each and every excess death study related to Covid-19. But it has been sitting on crucial data sets which could have put a full stop on all such conjectures.

New Delhi: A study published in Science Advances on July 19 (Friday) has claimed that the death toll in India during the first wave of Covid-19, that happened in 2020, was eight times higher than the official figure of 1.4 lakh. The study also says that the impact on life expectancy varies across socio-religious categories, with Muslims, Dalits and Tribals the worst-hit, far more than all the other groups.

Although several attempts undertaken to study the excess death estimates due to the pandemic in India have unanimously said that the government has grossly underestimated the number, experts have pointed out that the factor of eight, as claimed by the recent study, has to be interpreted with caution.

All previous such studies had estimated that the factor by which the Indian government undercounted deaths for 2020 was three-six, including the ones made by World Health Organisation (WHO), though their data sources were different as compared to this study. In other words, all these studies said the Indian government undercounted deaths by three-six times, depending on the study, thus leading to a significant difference in the multiplication factor between them and the latest one, which states the factor at eight.

Gautam Menon, dean of research at Ashoka University told The Wire, “No one disagrees with the fact that deaths were undercounted although my own leaning would have been towards an undercounting of between two and five in the first wave.”

Since all the other results in the latest study – loss of life expectancy and the very extent of caste and gender disparities as far as impact of pandemic is concerned – are based on the same subsample from which excess deaths were estimated, they too need to be read cautiously, two domain experts with whom The Wire spoke, suggested.

The authors of the latest study, Aashish Gupta, a scholar at University of Oxford and others have used the data generated in the second phase of India’s National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) to arrive at their conclusion.

This data was collected for the NFHS through interviews conducted to study the mortality in 2020 as compared to the previous years – the non-pandemic ones. And the NFHS found that the number of deaths in a few months of 2020 (the pandemic year) were 17.1% higher than the same months of 2019 (the non-pandemic year). This difference between a pandemic year and a non-pandemic year is referred to as ‘excess deaths’.

The second phase of data collection for NFHS was done in 14 states and union territories. The authors of the current paper, say, the data from these many states was extrapolated for the entire country, and they found out that 1.19 million (11.90 lakh) deaths took place in 2020. This, in turn, was eight times higher than the official estimate of the government of India. It was also 1.5 times higher than what the WHO calculated for the year 2020.

Noted demographer, Prabhat Jha, chair in Global Health and Epidemiology at University of Toronto, said the sample size captured during the second phase of NFHS – which was, in turn, extrapolated for the entire country may not be adequate to make calculations for undercounting.

Jha, who is known his work on death estimations worldwide, and who has himself conducted a study on undercounting of deaths during Covid-19 in India, added, “using just one year of baseline [of 2019 for making a comparison with the pandemic year of 2020] is not ideal.”

Gupta, an author of the paper, contended that the sample size was large enough to allow them to make the claims made in the paper. “Small sample sizes do contribute to larger confidence intervals [a metric casting doubts over results],’’ he said, adding that it was not the case with his paper.

Gupta said he and other authors had verified their results in “several ways,” including looking at average mortality of 2018-19 for the sake of comparison with 2020.

It is pertinent to mention here that unlike Gupta’s paper, which estimated that number of deaths in 2020 were 17.1% higher than 2020, all previous estimations suggested the proportion was nearly 9% – thus leading to a significant difference in the estimation of the extent of undercounting by the Indian government.

Jha’s paper found 0.6 million excess deaths took place between June 2020 and January 2021 when compared with similar months of previous year – thus accounting for 9% relative ‘excess’.

The WHO’s estimate also pointed out that 0.8 million extra deaths took place in 2020, 0r 9% more than the previous year.

The bottomline, however, Jha and others stressed remains the same — the Indian government has significantly underestimated deaths during the pandemic years.

Government’s allegations worse than defence

The Union India may well dispute the extent of undercounting, as enumerated by the latest study, but India remains a few of the very rarest countries in the world to claim that its systems had not done undercounting at all.

As with all other previous studies done on this subject, the health ministry on July 20 (Saturday) not only dismissed the latest study but remained adamant that it hadn’t missed counting deaths during the pandemic as its systems were ‘robust’ enough.

Some of the arguments the government put to defend its stance vis-a-vis the latest study were the same it had used to reject estimations of WHO, Jha, a study published in the Lancet, and several others. At one point, the government reportedly also tried to stall publication of one such report. Most of these studies pointed out India had the highest mortality in 2020 and 2021.

One of the things the government claimed this time was that its civil registration system (CRS) is sound enough to record, or register, more than 90% of all deaths that happened in 2019 and in the later years. This is in contradiction to some of its own studies like NFHS, which say, nationally this proportion is only 71%. In other words, about 30% deaths do not make into the records of the government – thus indicating that it might have missed recording a high number of deaths during Covid-19.

Moreover, even if the higher number of death registration of the government is to be considered, the fact remains that this higher proportion of registration of deaths is not at all evenly spread in the entire country. For instance, in Bihar only 37% deaths get registered, and in Uttar Pradesh, only 47% do.

The government also said in its July 20 statement that another metric – crude death rate – as documented through sample registration system (SRS) – had shown there was no excess mortality in 2020, in the pandemic year, as compared to the previous years.

Jha said it was a flawed statement. “For all ages, the declines that were occurring steadily in crude death rates [till 2019] stalled and rose particularly in [2020] in urban areas. This is consistent with the [fact that] 2020 viral wave mostly hit urban areas,” he added.

Crude Death Rate, 2020

Mortality rates in children, 2020. Source: SRS 2020 report

While the government is unprecedentedly quick in rejecting each and every excess death study related to Covid-19, it has been sitting on crucial data sets which could have put a full stop on all such conjectures. This includes at least three years of data, starting 2021, for CRS and SRS – both crucial sources to study deaths in India, as Jha and others pointed out. Such a delay in release of these crucial datasets has hardly been recorded before.

It is pertinent to note that the latest study has made claims only for 2020, which the government has sought to dismiss. But the much deadlier wave happened in 2021.

The release of the CRS and SRS reports for, at least, 2021 could have resolved all the controversies related to Covid deaths. Alternatively, the data could have also revealed that most of these independent excess death estimates were not far from reality.

Jha said another way to resolve all these controversies is to add one simple question in the upcoming census.

“Since January 2020, has there been a death in the house? If yes, then capture age, sex and date [at least month] of each death,” he said.

The census already captures information on deaths but only for the last one year. “By changing this question to last five years and recording [the] date, India would have a direct number of excess deaths. That would be the best quality information of any country in the world,” he added.

Life expectancy differentials across socio-religious categories

Gupta’s paper also said there was a higher loss of life expectancy in females (as compared to males) and the marginalised sections like SCs, STs and OBCs due to the pandemic. Among religious groups, Muslims bore the brunt, the paper said.

Overall, the paper suggested that life expectancy declined by 2.6 years. Relative to a decline in life expectancy of 1.3 years for high-caste Hindus, who are privileged in Indian society, the loss for Muslims was 5.4 years, for STs was 4.1 years, and for SCs was 2.7 years.

Also read: Report on Rare Adverse Side Effects of Covishield Causes Panic. But Should It?

However, Jha mentioned, “[Evidence related to these religious, gender and caste] subsections also requires a cautious interpretation [since all of this was based on the NFHS subsample of 14 states].”

A former Indian Statistical Services official said that, in principle, he agrees that marginalised sections may have faced worse outcomes than others during the pandemic. “There has been a historical trend of poor access to healthcare [in the case of] the marginalised sections, and Covid-19 would have exacerbated it,” he said, wishing anonymity. The pandemic is no outlier, he added.

Menon also agreed with this. “This implies that we must pay more attention than we do now to the question of social determinants of health in pandemic situations,” he said.

Many studies have documented this in the past. For instance, this 2023 article published in one of the journals of the ‘Sage’ group pointed out that India is lagging in achieving equity in healthcare as the poor and marginalised are deprived of it. Similar facts have been recorded in several news reports.

Similarly, there has been a lot of documentation (like here and here ) about females getting relatively poor access to healthcare as compared to males. There has not been an abundance of literature pointing towards large-scale deprivation of healthcare to Muslims but some reports have pointed this out for specific services like antenatal healthcare.

Note: An earlier version of this article is updated with Gautam Menon’s quote added at 10.50 pm (IST) on July 21, 2024.

India Reports Highest COVID-19 Fatalities Since July as States Update Tallies

While Bihar added 2,426 unrecorded deaths, Kerala added 263 deaths to their tallies on Sunday, a federal health ministry spokesperson told Reuters.

Mumbai: India on Sunday reported its highest single-day COVID-19 deaths since July after two states revised their death tolls.

The eastern state of Bihar added 2,426 unrecorded deaths while the southern state of Kerala added 263 deaths to their tallies on Sunday, a federal health ministry spokesperson told Reuters.

The revised figures took single-day deaths to 2,796, the highest since July 21, according to a Reuters tally.

A devastating second wave in March and April this year saw thousands of deaths and millions affected.

Indian states have continued to add unreported COVID-19 deaths in recent months, lending weight to some medical experts’ opinions that such deaths are much higher than the reported number of 473,326.

(Reuters)

Global COVID-19 Death Toll Exceeds 4 Million; 2 Million Deaths Recorded in Just 166 Days

The top five countries by total number of deaths – the United States, Brazil, India, Russia and Mexico – represent about 50% of all deaths in the world.

Coronavirus-related deaths worldwide passed a grim milestone of four million on Thursday, according to a Reuters tally, as many countries struggle to procure enough vaccines to inoculate their populations.

While the number of new cases and deaths have abated in countries like the United States and Britain, several nations have vaccine shortages as the Delta variant becomes the dominant strain around the world.

It took over a year for the COVID–19 death toll to hit two million, while the next two million were recorded in just 166 days, according to a Reuters analysis.

The top five countries by total number of deaths – the United States, Brazil, India, Russia and Mexico – represent about 50% of all deaths in the world, while Peru, Hungary, Bosnia, the Czech Republic and Gibraltar have the highest death rates when adjusted for population (graphic on global cases and deaths).

Countries in Latin America are facing their worst outbreak since March, with 43 of every 100 infections in the world being reported in the region. The top nine countries reporting the most deaths per capita over the last week were all in Latin America.

Hospitals in Bolivia, Chile and Uruguay are largely seeing COVID–19 patients between the ages of 25 and 40 as the trend toward younger patients continued. In Brazil’s Sao Paulo, 80% of intensive care units (ICU) occupants are COVID–19 patients.

Also read: Experts Say India Missed Early Alarm, Let Deadly Coronavirus Variant Spread

Soaring deaths are straining the operating capacity of crematoriums in developing nations and gravediggers in several countries have been forced to expand cemeteries with row after row of new tombs.

India and Brazil are the countries reporting the most deaths each day on a seven-day average and are still troubled with cremation woes and lack of burial space. India accounts for one in every three deaths reported worldwide each day.

Many health experts believe the official death toll to be undercounted globally, with the World Health Organization (WHO) last month estimating fatalities to be much higher.

Last week, Bihar raised its COVID–19 death toll sharply after the discovery of thousands of unreported cases, lending weight to concerns that India’s overall death tally is significantly more than the official figure.

As poorer nations struggle to inoculate their populations due to vaccine shortages, wealthier countries have been urged to donate more to control the pandemic.

“The primary issue in the Americas is vaccine access, not vaccine acceptance,” Pan American Health Organization Director Carissa Etienne said on Wednesday, urging donor countries to send shots as soon as possible.

The Group of Seven (G7) rich nations had pledged to provide one billion COVID–19 vaccinations to help poorer countries vaccinate their populations.

(Reuters)

COVID-19 and India’s New Viral Necropolitics

The pandemic has devastated the lives of Indians across classes and castes but will it help shape a new intersectional approach to public health and politics?

In Necropolitics (2019), Cameroonian philosopher Achille Mbembe describes the power of ‘liberal’ democracies – which never addressed or abandoned their founding violence of dispossession, exploitation, and extraction – to give death and withhold death as the sovereign rite of regulating life. This “necropower” is exercised not only through spectacular, if occasional, forms of terror but also by inflicting “small doses” of death on people living “at the edge of life”.

Such “molecular violence” – a slow haemorrhaging, a gradual exposure to death by means of enslavement, exploitation, everyday forms of pain, injury and debility – then becomes the very fabric of political order. In other words, necropolitics treats certain bodies as disposable and expendable through outright strangulation and confinement or acts of abandonment, indifference and neglect.

In India, the devastation caused by SARS-CoV-2 illustrates the layered manner in which necropower operates. At a time when the lines between a failing state and a flourishing virus are blurred beyond reprieve, and mass death and disease are dramatising the destruction of our health systems, we would do well to recognise the necropolitics at play in the pandemic.

Our everyday record is replete with stories about the labour of countless mortuary workers, sanitation workers, sweepers, cremation-ground workers and last-mile caregivers – who inordinately belong to Dalit or ‘lower’ caste backgrounds – performing caregiving’s final acts. That the Indian state routinely exposes such bodies to deathly conditions and infections without ensuring basic personal-safety equipment, insurance and pensions for them and their families evidences India’s casteist necropolitics of ‘care’.

Also read: Sacred Bones: Caste and COVID-19 in Delhi’s Crematoriums

The same can be said for countless unclaimed corpses relinquished by crematoriums and floating in India’s holiest rivers, whose invisible wounds of suffering and burials on liminal shorelines foretell lives from which even death escapes without a trace. Likewise, those living on the many edges of India, who routinely perform debilitating and humiliating forms of caste-labour, also routinely experience apartheid-like forms of residential segregation and long-term toxic exposures, and thus exist with chronically debilitated immune systems and fractured physical and mental health. Since liberal democracies work to erase and deaden any awareness of this slow violence, there is no real chance of interrogating its foundations.

Against this backdrop, what is ‘new’ about India’s necropolitics today? While the state is facing an emergency in which the biggest enemy is nature itself, the pandemic has enlarged the theatre of human suffering in three distinct ways.

Relatives of a person who died from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) collect ashes at the spot where he was cremated, as part of a ritual at a crematorium in New Delhi, India, April 30, 2021. Photo: Reuters/Adnan Abidi

First, the new viral necropolitics is going beyond those living merely “on the edge of life” in India. In the first wave of COVID-19, those directly performing precarious acts of manual and material labour for the state like migrants, casual labourers, informal workers, the socially unmoored and ‘lower’ castes were conspicuous in their afflictions – if not of disease then of unemployment and involuntary migration.

In contrast, India’s second wave of COVID-19 is visibly vanquishing even India’s middle and upper-middle classes and castes whose distinct struggles for ventilators, oxygen cylinders, hospital beds and vaccines reveal the cracked landscape of tertiary health systems in the country. On an unprecedented scale, today’s viral necropolitics is impacting the privileged thereby producing particular health crises for India’s entitled citizenry (and netizenry).

Long accustomed to forms of well-being sanctioned by their socio-economic and cultural status, India’s privileged classes are now finding their worst nightmares coming true. Individual privileges that entitled them to health in life (indeed, even dignity in death) are being hollowed out in the pandemic by dramatic experiences of suffering, which social media and smartphones are allowing to archive and transmit globally in real-time.

Ironically, the privileged are themselves reporting that their social, economic and political immunities have completely failed to protect or heal them. Anthropologically, this compels us to ask whether class privilege is truly being transcended in these appeals of suffering or merely being transformed into an exclusive class-based crisis? The important question is, will privileged appeals to political and civic failure have any consequences for attaining broader, inclusive forms of health justice in India?

Also read: The Reasons To Believe India’s COVID Tragedy Is Worse Than It Looks

Second, India’s new viral necropolitics is potently reshaping upper and middle-class and caste notions of corporeality and touch. The uncremated corpse lying in wait for a pyre bundled in body-bags and concealed from the fear of contamination, is among the defining symbols of our times. Such symbols secrete classed notions of disgust, contempt, fear and filth, which are being publically produced and channeled in the pandemic. The virulent dead having to be disposed from a distance as if they were ‘untouchable’; never before have India’s privileged classes and castes experienced this ‘as-if untouchability.’

While it can’t and mustn’t be equated with deep-rooted forms of caste untouchability practiced against Dalits in India for centuries, the role of touch as a privileged class and caste signifier shouldn’t be discounted. For the middle and upper-middle classes, the notion of untouchability hitherto existed only vis-à-vis Dalits and ‘lower’-castes. India’s new viral necropolitics is reshaping the problem of untouchability for the privileged qua themselves. What ethico-moral potentialities does such suffering hold? Will our systems of planning, policy-making and legislating health peopled by the same middle and upper-middle classes and castes now truly begin paying attention to the real ‘public’ in ‘public health’?

Muslims pray next to the graves of their relatives including those who died from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), on the occasion of the Eid al-Fitr amidst the spread of the disease in Ahmedabad, India, May 14, 2021. Photo: Reuters/Amit Dave

Third, the new viral necropolitics is revealing tensions within India’s conventional coalitions of necropower. The suffering of the privileged is undoing the political unity vital for the state’s lethal necropower to exclusively function against those living on it’s edges. The Indian state can no longer pretend to act as a “civilized” functionary of terror and violence, for among the acutely wounded are the state’s closest socio-economic, political and cultural benefactors and allies.

Their experiences of injury coupled with the state’s failure to provide healing are diminishing the state’s ethical record to care even for it’s most privileged subjects. Will these transformations of privileged suffering translate into concrete political reallignments against the state? Will India’s middle and upper-middle classes and castes be able to forgive the state for it’s failure to protect their lives and give them a ‘good death’? Or, politically, will this only result in more exclusive “zones of immunity” for the privileged?

Also read: COVID-19: Like in Dante’s ‘Inferno’, Indians Are Going Through Nine Circles of Hell

From an anthropological perspective, these three aspects of India’s new viral necropolitics may be noteworthy but they aren’t easy to realise structurally because of the deep hold of caste, class, gender, ethnicity and other markers of difference on Indian society. Yet, we must ask, how radical is their potential in everyday terms? Do novel alignments of class-based suffering possess the power to reimagine and overhaul India’s public health infrastructures for all? Will India’s new viral necropolitics impact and inform the demands for intersectional health justice? Will it interrogate and heal wounds caused by structural violence against Dalits, ‘lower’ castes and the country’s living-dead for whom health systems have been always been egregious?

Importantly, will novel forms of political unity be established between the suffering classes, castes and masses to demand accountability from the failing state? Or will necropolitics destroy these novelties in an endless cycle of perpetuating stratification? The present health crisis is unveiling exceptional forms of suffering yet it also holds an everyday potential to radically reorder the social, political and ethical calculus of care in India. Do we have what it takes to heed it’s macabre signs?

Nikhil Pandhi is a doctoral candidate in medical and cultural anthropology at Princeton University. He is also a Rhodes Scholar.

Death in the Time of the Coronavirus: A Day Spent in Delhi’s Crematoria

A reporter’s account of crematoria in the national capital.

A little sun and some rain made it an unusual May day. A cleaner Yamuna swelled with water and perhaps lost souls. But on her banks, the Sarai Kale Khan crematorium, with over 100 cremation pits, lay quite empty. It was 3 pm and only six bodies were burning. The wind blew east, but suddenly swerved towards a small reddish bench, making all its occupants – Bagh Narayan, 79-year-old living atlas, and the crematorium’s sweeper, Ram Lal, a cremation worker and I – savour earthly scents of yagna herbs, wood and charred flesh.

Around then another white ambulance arrived carting a dead mother, followed by her son wearing white PPE, Aman (name changed). There were no queues or waiting as the death surge was over. Aman rushed to finish paperwork, leaving his mother alone. What else could one expect as these were fearful times.

Pyres at the Sarai Kale Khan crematorium. Photo: Indra Shekhar Singh

A health official anonymously remarked, “Around last week of April-May, Delhi saw 700-800 deaths daily. But the official figures reported 40% lesser deaths.” Those were the bad days. Overburdened crematoriums were shutting gates by noon from Punjabi Bagh to Nigambodh Ghat, wood reserves were running low while undertakers and ambulance services were demanding Rs 50,000 per COVID-19 corpse.

Over the last month, I lost a few uncles, many friends and unknown Indians, and needed closure. But Narayan didn’t; he happily named one Dev Anand movie after another and sang Rafi and Kishore Kumar songs. Meanwhile, four men unloaded the body and their white ambulance sped away. A motley cartload of white eucalyptus logs, some other hard wood and old pieces of discarded furniture covered the corpse and the pundit’s incantation began. The pyre was almost ready.

This was Ram’s 15th workday. Due to the lockdown, he had lost his job and now entered the cadaver business to feed his family, a modern-day Harishchandra, one thought. “It takes four to five hours for a body to burn by wood and two hours in CNG,” as he said this, the nearest pyre crackled, and a white skull emerged. “I better get going, before it rains, bodies need to burn out before the rain comes,” he said.

Also read: The Political Theatre of Harsh Vardhan v. Baba Ramdev

Suddenly I caught a glimpse of Aman, hesitant to touch the torch and staring at the pandit. The pyre was unlit. The fear of infection reigned over him, but finally he agreed to touch the torch once and the wood caught fire.

By now two volunteers Ritwik and Apoorva, in blue PPE kits, were distributing food to cremation workers. On first sight they looked like an odd couple. “We are volunteers for an organisation offering free food at burial and cremation ground, but here too, a caste system prevails. The pundits won’t take the food so we have especially asked for the workers,” Apoorva said.

Two volunteers, Ritwik and Apoorva, distributing food to a cremation worker at the Sarai Kale Khan crematorium. Photo: Indra Shekhar Singh

“Our food packets have reduced too, as the death toll has drastically dropped, the burial grounds and big ghats like Nigambodh, etc. were functioning at 20-30%,” Ritwik said.

I spent the next few days travelling from Sarai Kale Khan to Punjabi Bagh, hopping between cremation grounds, observing their rush, management and hearing people’s sighs. Overall the NGO staff were supportive, with hardly any cases of overcharging and good government monitoring. But Punjabi Bagh crematorium was different. It had 20 lit pyres and a few smouldering ones. A sobbing woman broadcasting a cremation live video caught my attention, while the priest and other members were busy setting up the pyre. I went closer to take photos, and talk to people. But soon after, I was categorically told, “Media not allowed”. They never explained why, though. Between the smoke and ash, I suddenly started to smell something fishy.

Also read: West Bengal: Selectively Hiring Doms to Cremate COVID Victims Reflects Casteist Mentality

How to make sense of all the fishy-ness? A senior health official anonymously chipped in. “There is a major tussle for funds with municipal bodies and Delhi government. They allot the funds but don’t release them. Our department is working tirelessly. Due to the politicians, we get a bad name,” he said.

I inquired further about overcharging and media ban. “As soon as we heard any case, we took immediate action. If today any person is overcharging, report them to us, not only will we take action against them but also caution the NGO in charge of the cremation ground. As for the media ban, the government has no such policy.”

On the journey back, I stopped at the Green Park crematorium, a sanctuary for the departed. It was very neat and calm, most people were very friendly. It had seen 11 deaths since the morning. I walked in to see the new CNG cremation facility, and then walked to the wood cremation area. Here Shyam, a Brahmin from Bareilly, met me. He was the first of his family to work at the cremation grounds. A job he continues to do since 2004. The body bags, and mourner-less bodies distressed him too. “This work is not for money, but as a service to Bhole Baba (Shiva). But never in my life have I seen death take people like this,” he said.

Delhi: Municipal Corporation Leaders Say COVID-19 Death Toll Is Over 2,000

While the official tally stood at 1,085 as on Thursday, the Delhi government said the death audit committee is “working impartially”.

New Delhi: Senior leaders of the three BJP-led municipal corporations on Thursday claimed that over 2,000 COVID-19 deaths haven taken place in Delhi, while the official tally stood at 1,085 as on Thursday.

The Delhi government, reacting to the claim said, the COVID-19 death audit committee is “working impartially”, and this was “not a time for blame-game but to work together”.

At a press conference held at Civic Centre, North Delhi mayor Avtar Singh, East Delhi mayor Anju Kamalkant and chairpersons of the standing committees of NDMC, SDMC and EDMC shared the challenges faced by the corporations in the time of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Earlier also the [Arvind] Kejriwal government had reported less death when our tally from crematoria and burial sites had shown nearly three times of the official toll. And, now as per these figures, the number of deaths from COVID-19 in Delhi stands at 2,098 – SDMC (1080), NDMC (976), EDMC (42),” claimed Jai Prakash, the chairman of Standing Commitee of the NDMC.

Prakash shared the figures during the press conference.

The Delhi government later in a statement said, it has set up a Death Audit Committee comprising of senior doctors, who are “working impartially towards assessing deaths caused by coronavirus infection”.

“The Hon’ble Delhi High Court has also declared that the Death Audit Committee is working in an appropriate manner and that the work of the committee cannot be questioned,” it said.

“We believe that not even a single life must be lost to Coronavirus. This is a time to unite and save the lives of the people. This is not the time to make allegations after allegations, we all have to fight this pandemic together and ensure that not a single life is lost due to coronavirus,” the statement said.

Delhi recorded 1,877 fresh coronavirus cases on Thursday, the highest single-day spike here pushing the COVID-19 tally in the city to over 34,000-mark, and the death toll due to the disease mounted to 1,085, authorities said.

Senior civic leaders late May had also claimed that there was a “massive discrepancy” between the COVID-19 death toll as recorded from cremation and burial sites here, and the number of coronavirus fatalities reported by the Delhi government.

The COVID-19 death toll, according to an official bulletin released by the Delhi health department, stood at 194 on May 21, while the tally from MCD figures was nearly 600 till that date, NDMC’s Prakash had earlier said.

The NDMC panel chief said, despite paucity of funds, the civic bodies are fighting the COVID-19 battle.

“Our workers are carrying sanitation, collecting biomedical waste, doing sanitation of homes of people who are under home quarantine, but the Delhi government says we are not cooperating. How fair is that,” he said.

Prakash also claimed, MCD drivers are helping operate CATS ambulance.

“We are ready to give all our infrastructure, from stadia to community halls for converting them into medical facilities. We should end blame game and work together to fight corona,” he added.