A new World Health Organization (WHO) report shows that almost three times as many people have died from the COVID-19 outbreak so far than official data shows.
From January 2020 to the end of December 2021, there would be 14.9 million coronavirus-related deaths, the United Nations body said on Thursday, while the official count would put the number slightly higher than 5.4 million.
WHO’s excess mortality statistics include people who have died from COVID-19, as well as people who have died indirectly from the outbreak, including people who were unable to access health care due to other medical conditions when sanitation systems were overwhelmed during peaks in infection.
Almost half of the unrecorded deaths are in India
According to the WHO, the figures are also far higher than the official figures due to deaths that have not been recorded in countries without an adequate reporting system. Even before the pandemic, about six out of ten deaths worldwide were not recorded, says the WHO.
According to the report, nearly half of the unrecorded deaths are occurring in India, where an estimated 4.7 million people have died from the pandemic, the organization’s latest data suggests.
The Indian government, which disputes the WHO data, puts the death toll at around 480,000.