COVID-19 claimed 4.7 million Indian lives in 2020 and 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) said May 5, 2022. This is almost 10 times the number given by the Government of India — of half a million.
India is also among 20 countries which are responsible for over 80 per cent of the estimated global excess mortality for the January 2020 to December 2021 period. They represent roughly half the global population.
COVID-19 claimed close to 15 million lives globally in these two years, the WHO said. Some 6,243,038 deaths have been reported to WHO by the countries of the world through May 4. The WHO estimate is three times more than this. It also means that one in every three deaths due to COVID-19 was in India.
— source downtoearth.org.in | 05 May 2022