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A registry of death certificates in Mexico City suggests there were 4,577 cases where doctors mentioned coronavirus or Covid-19 as a possible or probable cause of death, more than three times the official death toll in the city, AP reports.

The federal government acknowledges only 1,332 confirmed deaths in Mexico City since the pandemic began, less than a third as many as the investigation revealed.

The anti-corruption group Mexicans Against Corruption said in a report Monday that it got access to a database of death certificates issued in Mexico City between 18 March and 12 May. It showed that in explanatory notes attached to 4,577 death certificates, doctors included the words SARS, COV2, COV, Covid 19, or new coronavirus.

Cemetery workers in personal protective equipment bury the casket of a Covid-19 victim at Tijuana Municipal Cemetery 13 in Tijuana, Mexico, 19 May 2020. Photograph: Norte Photo/Getty Images

The virus' technical name is SARS-CoV-2. The notes the group counted included terms like suspected, "probable, or possible role of the virus in the deaths. In 3,209 of the certificates, it was listed as a suspected contributing factor along with other causes of death, like pneumonia, respiratory failure, septic shock or multiple organ failure.

Only 323 certificates list confirmed coronavirus as a cause of death; 1,045 other death certificates listed Covid-19 but didn't specify if it was suspected or confirmed.

The group did not say how it accessed the database, which was kept by local courts. But it noted that official counts showed only 1,060 coronavirus deaths during that 18 March-12 May period.

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum has acknowledged there are more deaths than have officially been reported, and has said a special team of epidemiologists will review the death figures.