India COVID-19 death toll climbs amid oxygen shortages
'The true numbers are being suppressed'
India's relatively low fatality rate doesn't tell the whole story and suspicions abound that there's substantial undercounting in several states.
Suspected cases are not being added to the final count and deaths from the infection are being credited to underlying health conditions, point out observers.
"There appears to be a wide discrepancy between official records of deaths attributed to COVID-19 and reports of cremations and burials that are many multiples of what might normally have been expected," Gautam Menon, a professor of physics and biology at Ashoka University, told DW.