News
Is there a yawning hole in death data?
Controversy surrounds the COVID-19 death toll, with many alleging that there seems to be a major discrepancy in the reflection of the true numbers.
Referring to the total COVID-19 burials at Oddamavadi since the nod was given for such burials, the Health Ministry stated last week that 630 burials had taken place there.
The breakdown of the 630 burials are:
- Total Muslim burials – 596
- Total Hindu burials – 15
- Total Roman Catholic burials – 12
- Total Buddhist burials – 7
The Situation Report put out on June 15 by the ministry, meanwhile, based on data provided by the Epidemiology Unit gives the “distribution” of confirmed total deaths by ethnicity at June 12 as: Sinhalese – 69.1%; Moor – 17.8%; Tamil – 12.1%; foreign/other – 0.6%; and Burgher – 0.5%.
The same report gives the “total deaths” since the pandemic took a grip of Sri Lanka as 2,260.
This is where the gap arises, the Sunday Times understands.
- If just one group is taken – the deaths of Moors amounting to 17.8% (18%) – when calculated against the total deaths (2,260) would amount to: 406.8.
- When this figure is compared to the number of burials (596), there arises a shortfall of 189.
Even after giving some leeway for deaths which may have occurred before burials were allowed, a discrepancy seems obvious.