The coronavirus pandemic claimed more than 3 million excess deaths, or 1.2 million more than officially reported, in the year 2020, according to a new report by the World Health Organisation on Friday.
While the WHO’s official death toll due to COVID-19 is around 3.4 million so far, the actual number could be at least 6-8 million, showed the global health body’s annual World Health Statistics report 2021.
“This number would truly be two to three times higher. So, I think safely about 6-to-8 million deaths could be an estimate on a cautionary note,” WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Data and Analytics, Samira Asma, was quoted as saying at a virtual briefing.
The current estimate can be explained by under-reporting by countries on the number of infections and deaths tolls, the WHO report said.
“At the time of writing, more than 160 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and 3.3 million deaths had been reported to WHO. Yet these numbers are only a partial picture, as many countries have not been able to accurately measure and report on deaths that are either directly or indirectly attributable to Covid-19,” WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in the report.
“One of the greatest lessons from the pandemic is the importance of timely, reliable, actionable and disaggregated data. This requires strong country data and health information systems through collaboration between governments, ministries of health, national statistical offices, and registrar generals,” he added.
He also suggested engagement with the private sector, academia, non-profit organisations, and the scientific community to ensure data is accessible as a public good.
Surjitt Sahani
