Along the pandemic, the World Health Organization has warned that the mortality rate caused by the corona pandemic is higher than official figures. A new estimate by the organization has been obtained by looking at additional mortality.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the corona has killed about 14.9 million people between 2020 and 2021. In a report released on Thursday, the WHO estimates the number of victims in the range of 13.3 to 16.6 million.
About 5.4 million coronary deaths were officially recorded worldwide during that time. The actual number of deaths can therefore be up to about three times the official figures.
The new WHO assessment includes both deaths directly due to the coronary virus and indirect deaths due to the wider impact of the coronary pandemic on health and society. According to the WHO, the deaths include cancer patients who have not received treatment when hospitals are full of coronary patients.
The WHO did not specify in its report the proportion of deaths directly due to the coronavirus.
– This serious data not only reflects the impact of the pandemic, but also the need for countries to invest in more sustainable health systems capable of maintaining essential health services during crises, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says in the bulletin (you switch to another service).
Along the pandemic, the organization has warned that coronary mortality is likely to be much higher than known. It has been difficult to obtain accurate figures due, among other things, to the lack of corona testing. Different countries also have different practices regarding how they calculate corona deaths.
Help for future crises
The WHO estimate has been calculated using so-called extra mortality. Excess mortality is obtained by calculating the difference between the mortality in corona years and the expected mortality in normal years.
The highest number of additional deaths, 84 percent of all extra mortality, was found by the WHO in Southeast Asia, Europe and the Americas.
– Measuring extra mortality is essential to understanding the effects of a pandemic, WHO Deputy Director-General for Analytics Samira Asma says in a press release.
According to Asma, examining changes in mortality trends provides decision-makers with the information they need to prevent future crises, among other things.