The global death toll of COVID-19 has exceeded an important milestone: According to the figures available, the number of people who lost their lives due to COVID-19 so far has exceeded the 5 million threshold. However, most experts agree that this number is greatly underestimated and that the actual figures could be two to four times higher.
Vaccines have greatly slowed the death rate, but there are many places in the world where vaccines have not yet reached, and the number of cases is increasing. Among these regions are countries such as Tonga, where COVID-19 cases were seen for the first time recently. In conclusion, it is clear that the epidemic is not over yet.
According to experts, there may be many reasons why the numbers of COVID-19 do not fully reflect the truth. Early established COVID data boards such as the Johns Hopkins COVID tracker show the latest data available, but as we are increasingly aware, COVID-19 began traveling the Earth much earlier than previously thought. In the absence of COVID-19 information, the cause of deaths may have been recorded as other diseases or even unknown. Doctors weren’t yet familiar with the features that initially made a deadly COVID case. This means that many diseases are not properly diagnosed and reported.
In some countries, only COVID-19 deaths occurring in hospitals or those who have been tested and found positive for the virus have been reported. Other countries were so overwhelmed with deadly cases that there were not enough resources to test and identify potential pandemic deaths. Some countries, including Russia, Brazil and Iran, have also been cautious about disclosing actual COVID case numbers.
In May, the World Health Organization (WHO) suspected that deaths from the virus were three times higher than the numbers showed. Citing a report showing that by December 31, 2020, COVID had killed 1.8 million people, they explained that they actually estimated the real figure to be around 3 million.
By May, 3.4 million people had died, and the WHO reported that the figure could actually be between 6 and 8 million. 5 million official deaths, thus suggesting the real number could be over 10 million. It takes some more time and extensive research to obtain the real numbers.
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