No medical care for 45% of deaths in 2020: CRS data

The Civil Registration System (CRS) data for 2020 has a key metric which shows how difficult it was for people to get health facilities during the coronavirus pandemic. Around 45 per cent of all recorded deaths in 2020 occured in the absence of medical attention, the highest ever, reported The Indian Express

CRS data also show a sharp dip in deaths recorded in hospitals and other medical facilities in 2020.

For large parts of 2020, non-Covid medical services were suspended or operating thinly in India, with 80 to 100 per cent of beds in several hospitals reserved for Covid patients.

Consequently, a large number of people were unable to receive medical care for non-Covid illnesses. The CRS data has captured this agony for the first time.

The proportion of people dying in the absence of medical attention increased from 34.5 per cent of all recorded deaths in 2019 to 45 per cent in 2020, the largest single-year jump, reported Express.

Simultaneously, deaths under institutional care dropped from 32.1 per cent in 2019 to 28 per cent in 2020, the sharpest ever decline.

These two data points do not indicate a new or unusual phenomena. The proportion of deaths in the absence of medical attention has been steadily increasing over the past decade, and the proportion of institutional deaths coming down.