International – WHO releases estimates of 14.9 million excess deaths during COVID-19 pandemic

Emerging estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO) indicate that the full death toll associated – directly or indirectly – with the COVID-19 pandemic between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2021 was approximately 14.9 million.

The calculation was made by focusing on ‘excess mortality’ which is deduced as the difference between the number of deaths that have occurred and the number that would have been expected had there not been an international pandemic.

Excess mortality also includes deaths associated with COVID-19 due to the pandemic’s impact on health systems and wider society.

Deaths linked indirectly to COVID-19 are often attributable to other health conditions for which people were unable to access treatment because systems were overburdened by the pandemic…