London: The COVID-19 vaccines have prevented more than 4.2 million potential deaths in India in 2021.
This was revealed in a study published in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases. which is based on estimates of “excess” mortality in the country during the pandemic. Globally, mathematical modeling studies found that COVID-19 vaccines reduced the potential death toll during the pandemic by about 20 million or more than half.
In the first year of vaccination, 19.8 million of the potential 31.4 million COVID-19 deaths were prevented worldwide, the researchers said.
The study estimates that if the World Health Organization’s target of vaccinating 40 per cent of the population in each country with two or more doses by the end of 2021 had been achieved, another 599,300 lives could have been saved.
The study has estimated the number of deaths withheld between December 8, 2020 and December 8, 2021.
Oliver Watson, lead author of the study, said: “We estimate that vaccinations prevented 42,10,000 deaths in India over this period. The uncertainty in this estimate is between 36,65,000-43,70,000.” Watson said in an email, “This modelling study shows that the vaccination drive in India has saved millions of lives. This shows the remarkable impact of vaccination, especially in India, which was the first country to contend with the impact of the Delta variant.”
India’s numbers are based on estimates that 51,60,000 (48,24,000-56,29,000) deaths must have occurred in the country during the pandemic,” according to The Economist’s estimate, adding that 2.3 million people died from COVID-19 in India by the beginning of May 2021, while the official figure was around 2,00,000.
The WHO had estimated last month that 4.7 million deaths in India were due to Covid. However, this claims were rejected by the government of India.