Reuters | Geneva The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com Official death tolls from the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to be a "significant undercount", the World Health Organization said yesterday, estimating that the true figure of direct and indirect deaths could be two t
Reuters | Geneva
The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com
Official death tolls from the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to be a “significant undercount”, the World Health Organization said yesterday, estimating that the true figure of direct and indirect deaths could be two to three times higher.
Presenting its annual World Health Statistics report, the WHO estimated that total deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 were at least 3 million or 1.2 million more than the 1.8 million figure officially reported.
“We are likely facing a significant undercount of total deaths directly and indirectly attributed to COVID-19,” the UN agency said. By May 20 2021, WHO statistics showed around 3.4 million people had died globally as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, although the real figure could be much higher, the WHO said.
“So I think safely about 6 to 8 million deaths could be an estimate on a cautionary note,” said Samira Asma, WHO’s Assistant Director-General in its data and analytics division.
