It is welcome that the West Bengal government and the Centre have made peace on assessing the Sars-CoV-2 situation in the state. Reportedly, some authorities are giving in to the temptation to attribute the death of Covid-19 patients to the other ailments they suffer from.

This is futile. The deaths caused directly and indirectly by the pandemic will come out as the socalled ‘excess mortality’ above the trend when the Census numbers are published.

Excess mortality refers to the extra number of deaths that occurred, as compared to the number there would have been had the pandemic not occurred. The largest in terms of excess mortality recorded in history was during the Chinese famine in 1958-61 that followed the catastrophe of the Great Leap Forward: estimates varied from 16.5 million to 29.5 million.

The scale was significantly larger than the excess mortality of the Great Bengal Famine in 1943, estimated at around three million. Statistical models have evolved over time to compute excess mortality data.

While it is necessary to both ramp up testing for Covid-19 and streamline protocols for death certification, it is necessary to appreciate that deaths that occur as collateral damage also will be added to the Covid-19 toll.

The death toll of the Spanish Flu includes those killed by superinfections, such as cholera. Most countries report only those Covid-19 deaths that occur in hospitals.

In some countries, the authorities are attempting to clarify how many excess deaths must be attributed to the pandemic, either by including deaths outside hospitals in their daily totals or by retrospectively adjusting death tolls after death certificates are processed.

States must not try to fudge or under-report the coronavirus toll as the Census will reveal the missing lives, sooner or later.