The World Health Organization (WHO) says nearly 15 million people were killed either by COVID-19 or by its impact on overwhelmed health systems during the past two years, more than double the official death toll of just over 5.4 million.
There were 14.9 million excess deaths associated with COVID-19 by the end of 2021, the UN body said on Thursday.
The official count of deaths directly attributable to COVID-19 and reported to WHO in that period, from January 2020 to the end of December 2021, was slightly more than 5.4 million.
Excess mortality figures relied on by the WHO reflect the people who died of COVID-19 as well as those who died as an indirect result of the outbreak, including people who could not access healthcare for other conditions when systems were overwhelmed during huge waves of infection.