Coronavirus: WHO estimates Covid-19 pandemic killed nearly 15 million people in 2020-21, more than double official figures
- The WHO’s estimates are more than double the official death toll of 6 million, with most of the fatalities in Southeast Asia, Europe and the Americas
- Deaths linked indirectly to Covid-19 are attributable to other conditions for which people were unable to access treatment due to overburdened health systems
The Covid-19 pandemic killed 13.3 to 16.6 million people in 2020 and 2021, the WHO estimated on Thursday – up to triple the number of deaths attributed directly to the disease.
The World Health Organization’s long-awaited estimate of the total number of deaths caused by the pandemic – including lives lost to its knock-on effects – finally puts a number on the broader impact of the crisis.
“New estimates from the World Health Organization show that the full death toll associated directly or indirectly with the Covid-19 pandemic between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2021 was approximately 14.9 million (range 13.3 million to 16.6 million),” the UN health agency said in a statement.
The figure calculates what is termed as excess mortality due to the Covid-19 crisis, which has upended much of the planet for more than two years.
“These sobering data not only point to the impact of the pandemic but also to the need for all countries to invest in more resilient health systems that can sustain essential health services during crises, including stronger health information systems,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
Excess mortality is calculated as the difference between the number of deaths that have occurred and the number that would have been expected in the absence of the pandemic, based on data from earlier years.
Excess mortality includes deaths associated with Covid-19 directly, due to the disease, and indirectly due to the pandemic’s impact on health systems and society.