The Covid-19 killed 1,60,618 people in 2020 and accounted for 8.9 per cent of the total 18.11 lakh medically certified deaths in country, according to Report on Medical Certification of Cause of Death-2020 released by Office of Registrar General of India (RGI) on Wednesday.
This is, however, higher than officially declared Union Health Ministry’s Covid death count of 1,48,994 in 2020.
While Covid-19 was fourth biggest cause of medically certified deaths nationally in 2020, it was second biggest in seven States — Maharashtra (17.7 per cent), Manipur (15.7 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (15 per cent), Himachal Pradesh (13.5 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (12 per cent), Punjab (11.9 per cent) and Jharkhand (7.6 per cent).
In 2020, the most Covid deaths in absolute numbers were reported in Maharashtra (61,212) followed by Uttar Pradesh (16,489), Karnataka (15,476), Andhra Pradesh (12,193) and Delhi (8,744). Only one State — Arunachal Pradesh — and one Union Territory —Lakshadweep — did not report any medically certified Covid death during 2020, as per RGI data. For purposes of Report on Medical Certification of Cause of Death-2020, a separate group Covid was added for data collection after pandemic broke out in 2020.
In the report, Covid deaths have been reported under two sub-heads: One in which code ‘virus identified’ is assigned to a “disease diagnosis of Covid 19 confirmed by laboratory testing”; and second in which code ‘virus not identified’ is assigned to “a clinical or epidemiological diagnosis of Covid 19 where laboratory confirmation is inconclusive or not available.
Overall, heart diseases, pneumonia and asthma together claimed highest number of lives — over 42 per cent — of total 18,11,688 medically certified deaths registered in the country in 2020.
However, the total number of registered deaths in country was 81,15,882. A total of 5.7 per cent of total medically certified deaths were reported among infants (age less than 1 year) while about 71.7 per cent of all infant deaths were reported to be caused by certain conditions originating during perinatal period.
In age-group of 15-24 years, diseases of circulatory system claimed 18 per cent of deaths — the highest — followed by injury, poisoning, and certain other consequences of external causes, which constituted 15.7 per cent of deaths, implying age group to be peculiarly vulnerable to 'injuries and poisoning related deaths.