(Reuters) – A new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows nearly three times as many people have died from the COVID-19 outbreak so far than official data show.
From January 2020 to the end of December 2021, there would be 14.9 million deaths associated with the coronavirus, the United Nations body said on Thursday, while according to the official count the figure would be slightly higher than 5.4 million.
WHO excess mortality statistics include people who have died from COVID-19 as well as those who have died indirectly as a result of the outbreak, including people who were unable to access health care for other conditions when sanitation systems were overloaded during peak infections.
According to the WHO, the figures are much higher than the official tally also due to deaths that have not been registered in countries that do not have an adequate reporting system. Even before the pandemic, about six out of ten deaths worldwide went unrecorded, says the WHO.
The report indicates that nearly half of the deaths that have not been recorded are in India, where 4.7 million people are believed to have died from the pandemic, the organization’s latest data suggests.
The Indian government, which disputed the WHO data, estimates the death toll to be around 480,000.
(Report Jennifer Rigby with Leroy Leo in Bangalore; French version Federica Mileo)
by Jennifer Rigby