157 Million Cases and Deaths That Are Unreported/Underreported

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused nearly 6.9 million deaths across the world – more than double the number officially recorded – an analysis from the University of Washington, DC’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimated. 

Deaths go unreported as most countries only record those that occur in hospitals or of patients with a confirmed infection, the report which came out on Thursday, revealed. 

Current reported figures showed more than 157.5 million infections worldwide with at least 3.2 million deaths, according to Worldometers. 

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 (left), the director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, said in a briefing call with journalists. 

The independent health research organization that provide a comparable measurement of the world's health issues estimated total Covid-19 deaths by comparing anticipated deaths from all causes based on pre-pandemic trends with the actual number of all deaths caused during the pandemic. 

In the United States, the analysis estimated Covid-19 related deaths of more than 905,000. But official figures from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday estimated 575,491 deaths due to the novel coronavirus. 

The CDC did not immediately respond to a Reuters news agency request for comment on the report. 

The report only includes deaths caused directly by the virus, not deaths caused by the pandemic’s disruption to healthcare systems and communities. 

“Many countries have devoted exceptional effort to measuring the pandemic’s toll but our analysis shows how difficult it is to accurately track a new and rapidly spreading infectious disease”, Murray said. 

India is another example that is deserving our scrutiny. Those who have died due to Covid-19 now totals 238,265, Worldometers data showed. 

But news reports of interviews with medical doctors and community leaders who are involved in the counting the pandemic deaths, however, revealed that the real death toll could be many, many times higher than the official count.

I most certainly agree with IHME because I too, have brought up this very same issue since I’ve started highlighting about the pandemic last year. Truly, death numbers have been unreported and underreported.