World coronavirus death toll more than double official estimates, new report says
- The actual number of pandemic fatalities is close to 6.8 million, according to the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation
- In the US for example, the analysis estimated more than 905,000 Covid-19 related deaths
The Covid-19 pandemic has caused nearly 6.9 million deaths across the world, more than double the number officially recorded, a new analysis from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) estimated.
Deaths go unreported as most countries only record those that occur in hospitals or of patients with a confirmed infection, the report showed.
The IHME is an independent health research organisation that provides comparable measurement of the world’s health problems and has been cited in the past by the White House, and its reports are watched closely by public health officials.
The reported Covid-19 mortality is strongly related to the levels of testing in a country, the IHME said.
“If you don’t test very much, you’re most likely to miss Covid deaths,” Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, said in a briefing call with journalists.
