A few thousand extra deaths per day are easy to miss - we might be a 3rd world country but we are not that shitty.
I think this can hold in any country today, regardless of how developed you consider it to be. Slums not necessary. Less true in smaller countries like Iceland or the Vatican, of course, but I think this has way more to do with population size than progression.
This has more to do with information flow and reporting structure in healthcare care system not population size.
Having explored information flow in Indian healthcare system in detail, statistics may not be as accurate but few thousands extra deaths are not easy at all to miss.