Is India counting every COVID case? What about deaths?

As cases soar, experts say official numbers from world’s second-most populous country are likely a massive undercount.

Even after more than a year of devastating coronavirus surges across the world, the intensity and scale of India’s current crisis stands out, with patients desperate for short supplies of oxygen, pleas for help from overwhelmed hospitals and images of body bags and funeral pyres. As daily case counts soar far beyond what other countries have reported, experts caution the official COVID-19 numbers from the world’s second-most populous country are likely a massive undercount. But why is India’s data considered inaccurate? Is the data any less accurate than what other nations report? And which numbers give a good indication of the crisis?