The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday said the official death counts from the Covid-19 pandemic are likely to be a “significant undercount”, reported Reuters. It is estimated that the true figure of direct and indirect deaths could be two to three times higher than what has been reported globally.
“We are likely facing a significant undercount of total deaths directly and indirectly attributed to Covid-19,” the WHO said.
More than 3.4 million deaths worldwide have officially been attributed to the disease by May 2021 since the deadly virus first surfaced in China’s Wuhan city in late 2019. But, as per the annual World Health Statistics report published by the WHO, the death toll could be at least 3 million or 1.2 million more than the 1.8 million figure officially reported.
Samira Asma, WHO’s Assistant Director-General in its data and analytics division, said with the rising death toll in Latin America and in Asia as new variants spread, the death toll 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,” Asma told a virtual press briefing.
She said the U.N. health agency was working with countries to understand the true human toll of the pandemic so that the world can be better prepared for the next emergency.
According to the WHO, the discrepancy in the number of deaths reported could be due to several factors, including delay in reporting on Covid deaths in a number of countries, the fact that many people died of Covid without being tested, and also that many were unable to get treatment for other diseases and conditions due to lockdown measures.
“Excess mortality gives us a better picture because it captures both of these direct and indirect effects,” WHO data analyst William Msemburi told reporters.
