The global death toll from COVID-19 has reached more than 22 million, higher than the official figure of 7 million, the World Health Organisation said.
“From 2020 to 2023, global excess deaths from all causes were estimated at 22.1 million (95% UI: 20.6–23.6 million), compared with 7.0 million reported COVID-19 deaths. This implies that for every reported COVID-19 death, there were around two additional excess deaths related to the pandemic,” the “World Health Statistics 2026” report read on Wednesday.
According to the organisation, the main reason for this is underreporting by countries. This is also due to the fact that many countries have abandoned large-scale population COVID-19 testing after 2022.
“This finding highlights both the underreporting of deaths directly caused by the virus and the indirect deaths driven by health care disruptions, economic challenges and other social factors during this period,” the report added.
The WHO noted that the pandemic has erased a decade of gains in life expectancy, and the recovery remains incomplete and uneven across regions.
