Official tolls showing the number of deaths directly or indirectly attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to be a "significant undercount," the World Health Organization said on Friday, saying 6-8 million people may have died so far.
Presenting its annual World Health Statistics report, the WHO estimated that total deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 were at least 3 million last year or 1.2 million more than officially reported.
"We are likely facing a significant undercount of total deaths directly and indirectly attributed to COVID-19," it said.
The UN agency officially estimates that around 3.4 million people have died directly as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic by May 2021.
"This number would truly be two to three times higher. So I think safely about 6 to 8 million deaths could be an estimate on a cautionary note," said Samira Asma, WHO's assistant director-general in its data and analytics division at a virtual press briefing.
WHO data analyst William Msemburi said that this estimate included both unreported COVID-19 deaths as well as indirect deaths due to the lack of hospital capacity and restrictions on movements among other factors.
"The challenge is that the reported COVID-19 [death toll figures] is an undercount of that full impact," Msemburi said.
The WHO did not give a breakdown of the figure, referred to by health experts as "excess mortality."