Did the government of India mislead the world regarding the extent of the COVID-19 problem in its constituent states?

Abstract

Under-reporting of COVID-19 infections and deaths is as endemic as the virus itself. Undercounting is consistently associated with a large proportion of the population living in slums, associated low levels of health care resources, and a poorly functioning death reporting process. These conditions apply to most of Africa and large parts of Asia. All governments in these areas have seemingly been happy to go under-the-radar, some have even stopped reporting, although the citizens and government officials will be aware of the extent of the problem. As an example of far wider undercounting this article will concentrate on India since it is in the news especially because of the Indian variant of which the earliest version was discovered back in October of 2020. The federal collection of states has widely disparate levels of income and public health resources. Central reporting appears to be somewhat chaotic and downright deceptive in some cases. It is only in recent days that the Indian Congress has become aware of huge disparities in the number of death certificates issued since the beginning of the epidemic versus a tiny number of reported COVID-19 deaths.