Status: 05/05/2022 3:43 p.m
The pandemic has claimed between 13.3 and 16.6 million lives worldwide in 2020 and 2021, according to estimates by the World Health Organization. Not all died from Covid-19.
According to an estimate by the World Health Organization (WHO), in the period from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2021 worldwide between 13.3 and 16.6 million people died in connection with the corona pandemic.
The WHO bases its new estimate on the so-called excess mortality, which compares the number of deaths recorded in one year with the average mortality in previous years.
Many deaths due to overburdened health system
The estimate includes both deceased people infected with corona and people with other illnesses or injuries who could not be treated in time due to the overload of the health systems.
For the people who died from and with Corona, the number of deaths is according to reports from WHO member countries currently at just over 6.2 million worldwide. According to estimates by the WHO, around seven to ten million deaths can be attributed to the weakening of the health system.
More men than women died
According to the WHO, most of the deaths (84 percent) are in countries in Southeast Asia, Europe and America. In addition, according to WHO information, around 57 percent more men than women (43 percent) died during the estimation period.
The WHO experts have taken into account that a certain number of deaths have been prevented due to the corona restrictions. This includes, for example, fewer accidents on the road and accidents at work because more people were working from home and curfews were imposed in many places.
Estimates from other institutes had already shown similar numbers of excess mortality from the coronavirus pandemic in the past – such as those of the US Institute for Health Metrics (IHME) in Seattle. At the end of 2021, the institute assumed 15.4 million deaths. It provides estimates daily.
More investment in healthcare
To defuse the situation going forward, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for more investment in healthcare. This is above all necessary so that future vital treatments in times of crisis such as a pandemic do not have to be postponed. The WHO will work with all countries.
The WHO chief recently warned on Twitter not to underestimate the corona virus. The trend of falling corona numbers is welcome – but also due to fewer tests and sequencing. That makes “blind to how the virus mutates”.
In January 2020, the WHO declared an international health emergency due to the spread of the corona virus.