Madhya Pradesh has seen a sharp spike in deaths in April and May 2021, nearly three times more than normal in these months in previous year...
Madhya Pradesh has seen a sharp spike in deaths in April and May 2021, nearly three times more than normal in these months in previous years, and far more than the official Covid-19 death toll, government data shows. Moreover, the deaths are not restricted to big cities like Indore and Bhopal – Chhindwara was among the predominantly rural districts that reported a massive increase in registered deaths in May 2021.
The Civil Registration System is a nationwide system of recording all births and deaths, led by the Office of the Registrar General of India and implemented at the state-level by state governments. The CRS is meant to record all deaths from all causes and all locations, whether they were medically certified or not. As of 2018, Madhya Pradesh registered fewer than 80% of all deaths in the state, according to ORGI estimates. Despite being an underestimate, the CRS provides the only reliable estimate of all-cause mortality in the country.
In 2018 and 2019, an average of 28,000 people died in April and 31,000 people died in May in Madhya Pradesh, according to data maintained by the CRS on the number of deaths that were reported to it. In April 2020, the number of reported deaths declined...
