India’s COVID-19 death rate is the worst in South, East Asia

Recently, Narendra Modi said that the COVID-19 death rate of India is low compared to countries like the US, the UK and Brazil. While the Prime Minister is accurate in stating it, critics are of the view that India should rather compare itself with Asian neighbors like Pakistan and Bangladesh rather than with non-comparable countries like in Europe. 

If proper comparisons taking into account various factors like climate and demographics are made, it would be found out that India is the worst-performing country. Sharing a set of statistics, economist Kaushik Basu says, “The effect of India’s lockdown, which forced poor workers and migrants to scatter is now evident. Asia has less Covid than the West for climatic/historic factors. To see the effect of policy we need within-region comparison.”

Deaths due to COVID-19 for every million population of India is 86. Pakistan’s 30 and Bangladesh’s 35 is much lower. Hong Kong and Japan (14), Myanmar (20), Nepal (29), Afghanistan (39), Indonesia (48), Philippines (63) and Maldives (68) have done much better than India. 

Singapore, Brunei, South Korea, Malaysia, China, Thailand, Sri Lanka, among others, have done even better. 

Note: The data is as of October 25.