India has officially reported more than 414,000 deaths due to COVID-19, the third highest tally in the world after the United States and Brazil, but the study adds to growing calls from experts for a rigorous nationwide fatality audit.
“What is tragically clear is that too many people, in the millions rather than hundreds of thousands, may have died,” the report said, estimating the excess death toll during the pandemic at between 3.4 million and 4.9 million.

The report did not ascribe all the excess deaths to the pandemic.

The survey showed 67.6% of adults were seropositive, while more than 62% of adults were unvaccinated. As of July, just over 8% of eligible adult Indians had received two vaccine doses.

About 400 million of India’s 1.4 billion people did not have antibodies, the survey showed.