During debate with Biden, Trump questions India’s COVID-19 death numbers

Joe Biden said that Trump had no plan to combat the pandemic

Virus Outbreak Trump

US President Donald Trump at his first debate with Joe Biden said India and China do not accurately disclose numbers on COVID-19 deaths. Trump was responding to moderator Chris Wallace's question on why Americans should trust him more than his opponent Joe Biden to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“When you talk about numbers, you don’t know how many people died in China. You don’t know the deaths in Russia or in India… they don’t exactly give you a straight count, just so you understand,” Trump said to Biden after the latter mentioned that the US has more than seven million cases and over 200,000 deaths due to COVID-19. The country is leading currently in COVID-19 numbers. Trump also told Biden that the Trump administration did a good job at handling the pandemic, “By closing the country early, we saved thousands of lives… If it was left to you, millions of people would have died. You could have never have done the job we did. You don’t have the blood to do the job.”

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said that Trump had no plan to combat the pandemic. “The President has no plan. He knew in February how serious this crisis was, but what did he do? I laid out in March what we should be doing, and did so again in July. We should we providing funds to people so they can get the help they need,” Biden said.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) announced on September 25, 14,92,409 COVID-19 tests had been conducted in the country on the previous day. However, data from 24 states and Union Territories indicate that 11,99,627 tests were conducted on September 24. This indicates a mismatch in numbers the government shares on COVID-19 cases on deaths.

Thus far, as per official reports, 97,497 have succumbed to the coronavirus and 6.23 million people have been infected by the virus. As per data from the Union Health Ministry, 80,472 new infections were reported in the last 24 hours. Indian media has reported discrepancies in the number of testing and deaths in places like Telangana, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. There is known to be a mismatch in numbers from New Delhi and West Bengal also. 

As per a Lancet report published on September 5, India has had 3.6 million cases of COVID-19, the third-most in the world after the USA and Brazil, with 65 288 officially confirmed deaths from the disease as of September 1, 2020.

Indian Council of Medical Research guidelines stipulates that deaths of people with suspected or probable COVID-19 should be included in mortality data, based on WHO ICD-10 codes for COVID-19-related deaths. When asked about reports that some states had not recorded any suspected or probable COVID-19 deaths, Giridhara R Babu, an epidemiologist at the Public Health Foundation of India, talked about general weaknesses in vital registration. He told The Lancet that in rural areas, where most of India's population lives, most deaths occur outside the hospital, which can delay registration.

“Among the deaths registered under the civil registration system, only 22% are medically certified nationally with the cause of death”. Rijo John, public health policy analyst and senior fellow at the Centre for Public Policy Research in Kerala, said some under-reporting is happening. He told The Lancet that “while it is true that only 21% of all deaths are medically certified in India, we should not forget that more than 65% of the total COVID-19 deaths reported in India so far are from just four states, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Delhi. In all these states, the death registration is 100 per cent”.

Different Indian states are using different COVID-19 diagnostic tests. And some states aren’t forthcoming with data on how many of each type of test is being used. “Although health is a state responsibility, the health ministry could at least release an advisory to make the data reporting standardised and transparent across states”, John said.

According to John, Tamil Nadu has added backlogs of 400-plus deaths. West Bengal used to exclude all deaths due to comorbidities from COVID deaths. But these practices have now been stopped.

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