More than 18 million people - three times more than official estimates - have probably died from Covid-19, scientists say, quoted by the BBC.

The report comes exactly two years after the announcement of a pandemic by the World Health Organization.

The Covid team on excessive mortality at the University of Washington has studied the situation in 191 countries and territories in search of a “true number of global mortality.”

Some deaths are due to the virus, while others are related to the infection.

This is due to the fact that Covid-19 can worsen other pre-existing medical problems - heart or lung, for example.

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The team calculates the so-called excessive mortality - how many people died more than expected compared to previous years before the pandemic struck.

To this end, researchers have collected data through various government websites, the World Mortality Database, the Human Mortality Database and the European statistical office Eurostat.

Excessive mortality is estimated for the period from the beginning of 2020 to the end of 2021. According to a study published in the Lancet, the highest values ​​are in low-income countries in Latin America, Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. But also in richer countries like Italy and parts of the United States.

The five countries with the highest excessive mortality are Bolivia, Bulgaria, Eswatini, North Macedonia and Lesotho.

/BNR

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