“Total deaths are at least two to three times higher than officially reported,” Samira Asma, the WHO assistant director-general in charge of data, told reporters.
In 2020, the report found there had been at least three million excess deaths due directly or indirectly to Covid-19, while the official number of Covid deaths was 1.8 million at the end of the year.At a regional level, excess mortality estimates for the Americas stood at up to 1.46 million, and as much as 1.21 million in the European region in 2020, representing 60 and 50 percent more than the reported Covid deaths there, the report found.
The term “excess deaths” describes deaths beyond what would have been expected under “normal” conditions. It captures not only confirmed deaths, but also COVID-19 deaths that were not correctly diagnosed and reported as well as deaths attributable to the overall crisis conditions. This provides a more comprehensive and accurate measure when compared with confirmed COVID-19 deaths alone.
For example, some countries only report COVID-19 deaths occurring in hospitals or the deaths of people who have tested positive for COVID-19. In addition, many countries cannot accurately measure or report cause of death due to inadequate or under-resourced health information systems.
Up to three times more people have died due to the pandemic than indicated by the officially reported Covid deaths, the World Health Organization said Friday.So far, more than 3.4 million deaths worldwide have officially been attributed to Covid-19 since the disease first surfaced in China in late 2019.
Asked how many excess deaths could be attributed to the pandemic up to today globally, Asma said that “I think safely, about six to eight million deaths could be an estimate,to understand the true human toll of the pandemic so we can be better prepared for the next emergency,”