The COVID-19 vaccination drive in India prevented over 42 lakh deaths in the country in 2021, The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, has said in its latest findings. According to reports, the study is based on the estimates of ‘excess’ mortalities in the country during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a report by news agency ANI, which cited the Lancet study, COVID-19 vaccination may have helped reduce the number of deaths to almost a third of what it would have been.
“Across 185 countries and territories, 31.4 million COVID-19-related deaths would have occurred during this timeframe in the absence of COVID-19 vaccination. About 19.8 million deaths were averted by COVID-19 vaccination,” said the study.
“Consequently, the number of lives saved by COVID-19 vaccination markedly exceeded the death toll that has occurred. Nonetheless, even more, lives could have been saved by improving the equitability of vaccination coverage worldwide. Specifically, an estimated 156,900 additional deaths would have been averted if the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) Facility’s vaccination target of 20 per cent (for each Advance Market Commitment country) had been attained, and an estimated 599,300 additional deaths would have been averted if WHO’s 2021 COVID-19 vaccination target of 40 per cent (for each country) had been attained,” stated the study.
Oliver Watson, lead author of the study said that 4,210,000 deaths were prevented by vaccination in the country. According to the report, the study refers to excess mortality rates published by a British newspaper and the official data released by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The group said that it has also investigated the COVID-19 death toll based on reports of ‘excess mortality and seroprevalence surveys and arrived at similar estimates of almost 10 times the official count’ – the agency reported.