Unvaccinated People Made up 92% Of COVID Deaths in India This Year: Govt Data

As per the national database, COVID deaths in India have seen a sharp fall between April 2021 and February 2022.

COVID Deaths in India: Unvaccinated people make up the majority

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92 percent of people who died of COVID-19 this year in India were unvaccinated, said Union government officials on 3 March.

Speaking at a press briefing on Thursday, Dr Balaram Bhargava, director general, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) added that data from the national database shows a sharp fall in COVID related deaths in India between April 2021 and February 2022.

The data was collated from three government sources CoWIN, ICMR testing, and the COVID India portal of the Union ministry of health.

The Union Health Ministry's findings are in congruence with data from other parts of the world that suggests COVID vaccines considerably reduce the risk of mortality in infected patients, even in cases of breakthrough infections.

"It is evident that vaccines and the wide vaccination coverage have played a very important role in protecting hundreds of lives. The vaccine has protected the nation from a surge in the number of COVID cases."

Dr VK Paul, member (health) NITI Aayog, quoted by NDTV

Vaccines Protect Against COVID Deaths

Back in September 2021, three separate studies conducted by the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC) unvaccinated people are 11 times more likely to die from COVID complications than fully vaccinated individuals.

The third study, conducted between June and August 2021, looked at data from the largest real-world study conducted in the US on the effectiveness of the three vaccines, and involved 32,000 people.

Another report by the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) based on records of 70,000 COVID deaths in the country found the death rate to be 356.5 per 100,000 among unvaccinated people in the time period between July and December 2021.

(Written with inputs from NDTV and Hindustan Times.)