Background India has been severely affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, due to shortcomings in disease surveillance, the burden of mortality associated with COVID-19 remains poorly understood. We aimed to assess changes in mortality during the pandemic in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, using data on all-cause mortality within the district. Methods For this observational study, we analysed comprehensive death registrations in Chennai, from Jan 1, 2016, to June 30, 2021. We estimated expected mortality without the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic by fitting models to observed mortality time series during the pre-pandemic period, with stratification by age and sex. Additionally, we considered three periods of interest: the first 4 weeks of India's first lockdown (March 24 to April 20, 2020), the 4-month period including the first wave of the pandemic in Chennai (May 1 to Aug 31, 2020), and the 4-month period including the second wave of the pandemic in Chennai (March 1 to June 30, 2021). We computed the difference between observed and expected mortality from March 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021, and compared pandemic-associated mortality across socioeconomically distinct communities (measured with use of 2011 census of India data) with regression analyses. Findings Between March 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021, 87 870 deaths were registered in areas of Chennai district represented by the 2011 census, exceeding expected deaths by 25 990 (95% uncertainty interval 25 640–26 360) or 5·18 (5·11–5·25) excess deaths per 1000 people. Stratified by age, excess deaths numbered 21·02 (20·54–21·49) excess deaths per 1000 people for individuals aged 60–69 years, 39·74 (38·73–40·69) for those aged 70–79 years, and 96·90 (93·35–100·16) for those aged 80 years or older. Neighbourhoods with lower socioeconomic status had 0·7% to 2·8% increases in pandemic-associated mortality per 1 SD increase in each measure of community disadvantage, due largely to a disproportionate increase in mortality within these neighbourhoods during the second wave. Conversely, differences in excess mortality across communities were not clearly associated with socioeconomic status measures during the first wave. For each increase by 1 SD in measures of community disadvantage, neighbourhoods had 3·6% to 8·6% lower pandemic-associated mortality during the first 4 weeks of India's country-wide lockdown, before widespread SARS-CoV-2 circulation was underway in Chennai. The greatest reductions in mortality during this early lockdown period were observed among men aged 20–29 years, with 58% (54–62) fewer deaths than expected from pre-pandemic trends. Interpretation Mortality in Chennai increased substantially but heterogeneously during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the greatest burden concentrated in disadvantaged communities. Reported COVID-19 deaths greatly underestimated pandemic-associated mortality. Funding National Institute of Gener...

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A population-representative serological study was conducted in all districts of the state of Tamil Nadu (population 72 million), India, in October-November 2020. State-level seroprevalence was 31.6%. However, this masks substantial variation across the state. Seroprevalence ranged from just 11.1% in The Nilgris to 51.0% in Perambalur district. Seroprevalence in urban areas (36.9%) was higher than in rural areas (26.9%). Females (30.8%) had similar seroprevalence to males (30.3%). However, working age populations (age 40-49: 31.6%) have significantly higher seroprevalence than the youth (age 18-29: 30.7%) or elderly (age 70+: 25.8%). Estimated seroprevalence implies that at least 22.6 million persons were infected by the end of November, roughly 36 times the number of confirmed cases. Estimated seroprevalence implies an infection fatality rate of 0.052%.

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Introduction:The EQ-5D-5L questionnaire is a tool that is a very generic and preference-based instrument to describe the health-related quality of life. We have generated the stratified index utility value for the Tamil Nadu population and compared the utility values based on socio-demographic and clinical characteristics. Methods: We conducted a community-based analytical cross-sectional study using telephonic interviews from November 2020 till December 2020 among individuals aged 18 years and above who were infected by the coronavirus confirmed with an RT-PCR within 30 days in Tamil Nadu State. EQ-5D-5L profile, sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of the study participants were collected and analysed. Results: We interviewed 372 participants, with 57.5% were males, and their mean age was 44.5 ± 15.3 years. About 40% of participants reported as having comorbidities, such as diabetes (19.4%), hypertension (12.4%), heart disease (2.4%), kidney disease (0.8%) and others. The mean EQ-5D utility score was 0.925 ± 0.150, and the mean EQ-VAS was 90.68 ± 11.81. Overall, men had a higher utility value (0.938 ± 0.130) than women, (0.907 ± 0.170). Individuals with comorbidities, requiring longer hospitalisation were having lower utility scores than their counterparts. Conclusion:We report the EQ-5D-5L utility values for the COVID-19 illness. These values would help to estimate quality-adjusted life years in health economic evaluation studies.