Photo : APThe reported Covid death toll from January 2020 to December 2021 in India is 4,89,000. The study published in The Lancet, a British medical journal, estimates that the actual number of estimated excess mortality during that period is 40,70,000 deaths. In India, the Covid mortality rate reported was 18.3 deaths per one lakh deaths. In the report, it is stated that the estimated excess mortality rate is actually 152.5 deaths per one lakh people. This is higher than the global average of the estimated excess mortality rate.Globally, the reported deaths toll is 59,40,000. The report states that the estimated excess death toll is about 1,82,00,000 deaths. The mortality rate reported is 39.2 deaths per one lakh people, but in the report the actual mortality rate to be found is 120.3 deaths per one lakh people.What is excess mortality?Excess mortality is an increase in the number of deaths as compared to the usual number of deaths during a certain period of time. In this study, the excess mortality is referring to the deaths that were directly related to the virus or indirectly related. The latter signifies the cases where catching the coronavirus infection has deteriorated the pre-existing conditions of a person like heart or lung diseases and has therefore led to their deaths.This report was published on March 10, two years to the date when the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared a pandemic.The study’s aim was to estimate the excess mortality rate from the Covid-19 pandemic in 191 countries and territories, and 252 subnational units for selected countries. The time period taken for the report was from January 1, 2020, to December 31, 2021. According to the study, during the second Covid-19 wave in India between April 2021 and July 2021, the excess mortality rate was an estimated 152.5 excess deaths per 1,00,000 people. This estimate is much higher than the reported Covid-19 mortality rate 18.3 per 1,00,000 people over the same period. This means that 152.5 people died per 1 lakh people during the second wave in contrast to the recorded number of only 18.3 deaths per 1 lakh people.Eight Indian states had excess mortality rates higher than 200 deaths per one lakh, a level only exceeded by 50 other countries in the world. These states were Uttarakhand, Manipur, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, and Karnataka. Arunachal Pradesh, Telangana, Sikkim, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Goa had excess mortality rates that were lower than the global average.“Although the excess mortality rates due to the COVID-19 pandemic among Indian states are not the highest in the world, because of India’s large population, the country accounted for 22·3% of global excess deaths as of December 31, 2021. Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra had excess deaths higher than South Africa with South Africa ranking tenth among all countries,” the study said.Following India was USA with an estimated excess death toll of 13,10,000. Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia and Pakistan also had an excess death toll of more than 5,00,000. The seven countries combines accounted for more than half of the global excess deaths due to Covid-19 over the 24-month period.The data and information was collected through various government websites, the World Mortality Database, the Human Mortality Database, and the European Statistical Office. The total death toll shows that Covid-19 is one of the leading causes of death during the pandemic when compared to other causes of death before the pandemic.The study recommended, “Governments should try to use digital reporting of cause of death data and rapid release of the data to the public health community. If more countries invested in timely reporting, we would not only be able to track the effects of this pandemic and future pandemics, but we could more rapidly evaluate the effect of behavioural changes, such as social distancing, on mortality rates of other diseases and injuries.”The study shows that the full impact of the pandemic has been much greater than what is suggested by official statistics. The researchers state that excess deaths due to the pandemic are bound to decline due to vaccinations and new treatments, but they have warned that the pandemic is not over and new deadly variants may still emerge.