Karnataka records excess 1 lakh deaths in first six months of 2021, five times the COVID-19 toll of this year

KEY STORY

• Amid claims and concerns over underreporting of COVID-19 deaths in several states across the country, Karnataka has recorded excess 1 lakh deaths this year compared to data from 2018 and 2019. Around 3,37,000 deaths were recorded by Karnataka between January 1 and June 15 this year, as per the state’s civil registration system (CRS) of the Registrar of Births and Deaths.

• In comparison, Karnataka had recorded around 2,24,000 deaths between January 1 and June 30, 2018, and nearly 2,35,000 deaths during the same period in 2019. Official data for 2020 was not available.

• When compared with 2019, an excess of 1 lakh deaths have been recorded in the first six months this year in Karnataka. This figure is nearly 5 times the official COVID-19 toll reported by the state government.

• The state health department has recorded 21,048 COVID-19 deaths during the same period this year.

  There is a likelihood that the 1 lakh excess deaths figure could include both unreported COVID-19 fatalities as well as those due to other and natural causes.

  Latest Karnataka COVID-19 figures

   

• On Thursday, Karnataka reported 5,983 new COVID-19 cases along with fresh 138 fatalities. The state has now recorded a total of 27.90 lakh cases and 33,434 fatalities.

• As per the state health department, 10,685 patients recovered on Thursday and the recoveries in the state have surged to 26,10,157.

• The state currently has a total of 1,46,726 active cases of coronavirus.

• The positivity rate for Thursday was 3.77 per cent, while the case fatality rate (CFR) was 2.30 per cent.