COVID 19

Almost three times as many died as a result of COVID than officially reported – WHO

2022.05.05 15:28

Almost three times as many died as a result of COVID than officially reported - WHO
FILE PHOTO: A man is consoled by his relative as he sees the body of his father, who died from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), before his burial at a graveyard in New Delhi, India, April 16, 2021. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui

By Jennifer Rigby

(Reuters) – Almost three times as many people have died as a result of COVID-19 as the official data show, according to a new World Health Organization (WHO) report, the most comprehensive look at the true global toll of the pandemic so far.

There were 14.9 million excess deaths associated with COVID-19 by the end of 2021, the U.N. body said on Thursday. The official count of deaths directly attributable to COVID-19 and reported to WHO in that period, from January 2020 to the end of December 2021, is slightly more than 5.4 million.

The WHO’s excess mortality figures reflect people who died of COVID-19 as well as those who died as an indirect result of the outbreak, including people who could not access healthcare for other conditions when systems were overwhelmed during huge waves of infection. It also accounts for deaths averted during the pandemic, for example because of the lower risk of traffic accidents during lockdowns.

But the numbers are also far higher than the official tally because of deaths that were missed in countries without adequate reporting. Even pre-pandemic, around 6 in 10 deaths around the world were not registered, WHO said.

The WHO report said that almost half of the deaths that until now had not been counted were in India. The report suggests that 4.7 million people died there as a result of the pandemic, mainly during a huge surge in May and June 2021.

The Indian government, however, puts its death toll for the January 2020-December 2021 period far lower: about 480,000. WHO said it had not yet fully examined new data provided this week by India, which has pushed back against the WHO estimates and issued its own mortality figures for all causes of death in 2020 on Tuesday. WHO said it may add a disclaimer to the report highlighting the ongoing conversation with India.

The WHO panel, made up of international experts who have been working on the data for months, used a combination of national and local information, as well as statistical models, to estimate totals where the data is incomplete – a methodology that India has criticised.

However, other independent assessments have also put the death toll in India far higher than the official government tally, including a report published in Science which suggested three million people may have died of COVID in the country.

Other models have also reached similar conclusions about the global death toll being far higher than the recorded statistics. For comparison, around 50 million people are thought to have died in the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, and 36 million have died of HIV since the epidemic began in the 1980s.

Samira Asma, WHO assistant director general for data, analytics and delivery for impact, who co-led the calculation process, said data was the “lifeblood of public health” needed to assess and learn from what happened during the pandemic, and called for more support for countries to improve reporting.

“Too much is unknown,” she told reporters in a press briefing.

Source

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button
bitcoin
Bitcoin (BTC) $ 94,832.41 1.81%
ethereum
Ethereum (ETH) $ 3,270.13 2.16%
tether
Tether (USDT) $ 0.996615 0.35%
xrp
XRP (XRP) $ 2.17 2.25%
bnb
BNB (BNB) $ 655.78 0.48%
solana
Solana (SOL) $ 182.46 0.25%
dogecoin
Dogecoin (DOGE) $ 0.310357 1.36%
usd-coin
USDC (USDC) $ 0.997506 0.26%
cardano
Cardano (ADA) $ 0.882077 1.11%
staked-ether
Lido Staked Ether (STETH) $ 3,264.99 2.11%
tron
TRON (TRX) $ 0.24578 0.26%
avalanche-2
Avalanche (AVAX) $ 36.13 3.54%
chainlink
Chainlink (LINK) $ 22.40 1.72%
the-open-network
Toncoin (TON) $ 5.37 1.15%
wrapped-steth
Wrapped stETH (WSTETH) $ 3,898.36 1.45%
wrapped-bitcoin
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) $ 94,568.34 1.74%
shiba-inu
Shiba Inu (SHIB) $ 0.000021 0.52%
sui
Sui (SUI) $ 4.24 4.33%
stellar
Stellar (XLM) $ 0.353173 0.09%
polkadot
Polkadot (DOT) $ 6.83 1.88%
hedera-hashgraph
Hedera (HBAR) $ 0.263957 5.09%
hyperliquid
Hyperliquid (HYPE) $ 26.72 18.91%
weth
WETH (WETH) $ 3,276.58 1.93%
bitcoin-cash
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 438.16 2.84%
leo-token
LEO Token (LEO) $ 9.33 0.19%
uniswap
Uniswap (UNI) $ 13.74 0.19%
litecoin
Litecoin (LTC) $ 101.40 1.95%
pepe
Pepe (PEPE) $ 0.000018 1.35%
wrapped-eeth
Wrapped eETH (WEETH) $ 3,455.12 1.97%
near
NEAR Protocol (NEAR) $ 5.01 0.92%
ethena-usde
Ethena USDe (USDE) $ 0.997045 0.34%
bitget-token
Bitget Token (BGB) $ 4.09 1.45%
usds
USDS (USDS) $ 0.997109 0.01%
aptos
Aptos (APT) $ 9.10 2.17%
aave
Aave (AAVE) $ 322.43 8.32%
internet-computer
Internet Computer (ICP) $ 9.89 1.00%
crypto-com-chain
Cronos (CRO) $ 0.152682 2.21%
polygon-ecosystem-token
POL (ex-MATIC) (POL) $ 0.471512 0.42%
mantle
Mantle (MNT) $ 1.17 2.89%
ethereum-classic
Ethereum Classic (ETC) $ 25.97 0.06%
vechain
VeChain (VET) $ 0.045404 0.59%
render-token
Render (RENDER) $ 6.98 1.42%
whitebit
WhiteBIT Coin (WBT) $ 24.46 0.45%
monero
Monero (XMR) $ 186.65 1.87%
mantra-dao
MANTRA (OM) $ 3.63 1.39%
dai
Dai (DAI) $ 0.997934 0.28%
bittensor
Bittensor (TAO) $ 451.08 0.49%
fetch-ai
Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET) $ 1.25 0.82%
arbitrum
Arbitrum (ARB) $ 0.746091 0.33%
ethena
Ethena (ENA) $ 1.05 2.33%