Coronavirus: India deaths hit daily record after data revision; Mahathir wants new body to fight pandemic

The discovery of several thousand unreported deaths in India’s Bihar has raised suspicion that many more victims have not been included in official figures

Mahathir told the king that a national operations council should be set up to replace the ruling coalition that has failed to contain the pandemic

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Indian police officers walk wearing virus-themed helmet in Hyderabad. Photo: AP

Published: 7:40pm, 10 Jun 2021Updated: 8:21pm, 10 Jun 2021

An Indian state has raised its Covid-19 death toll sharply higher after the discovery of thousands of unreported cases, lending weight to suspicion that the country’s overall death tally is significantly more than the official figure.

Indian hospitals ran out of beds and life-saving oxygen during a devastating second wave of coronavirus in April and May and people died in car parks outside hospitals and at their homes.

Many of those deaths were not recorded in Covid-19 tallies, doctors and health experts say.

India has the second-highest tally of virus infections in the world after the US, with 29.2 million cases and 359,676 deaths, according to health ministry data.

But the discovery of several thousand unreported deaths in the state of Bihar has raised suspicion that many more coronavirus victims have not been included in official figures.

The health department in Bihar, one of India’s poorest states, revised its total virus-related death toll to more than 9,429 from about 5,424 on Wednesday.