The recorded death toll from the Covid-19 pandemic as of Thursday is nearly 2 million. The true range is much worse.
More than 2.8 million people lost their lives due to the pandemic, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data from 59 countries and jurisdictions. This version provides the most comprehensive overview to date of the global impact of the pandemic. Deaths in these places rose more than 12% above average levels last year.
Less than two-thirds of the boom is directly attributed to Covid-19. Public health experts believe that many, if not most, of the additional deaths were directly linked to the disease, especially early in the pandemic when the test was scarce. Some of these excessive deaths come as a result of indirect dropouts, due to disruptions in health care, people avoiding the hospital and other problems.
To better understand the global toll of the pandemic, the Journal compiled the latest available data on all-cause deaths from countries with available records. These countries make up about a quarter of the world population, but about three-quarters of all deaths were reported at the end of last year due to Covid-19.
The count found more than 821,000 additional deaths that are not accounted for in the official Covid-19 death rates of governments.