The corona pandemic has claimed millions of victims. These are numbers that are difficult to grasp. A comparison by the WHO now illustrates the serious scale of the global health disaster.
Nearly 337 million years of life have been lost due to deaths from Covid-19, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). This estimate reflects the true magnitude of the pandemic, according to the UN health authority’s statistical yearbook, published in Geneva on Friday.
The WHO attributes a total of approximately 14.9 million deaths to the coronavirus in 2020/21 alone. On average, a life was shortened by about 22 years at a time. In total, some 20 million people were killed, of which some seven million have been officially reported.
When the WHO declared the corona emergency on January 30, 2020, about 100 infections were known in about 20 countries outside China and no deaths were recorded. In May – more than three years later – WHO withdrew Covid-19 from its classification as a global public health emergency. However, the virus would continue to kill. At the end of April, someone died every three minutes. In Austria, around 22,500 confirmed deaths have been reported directly related to an infection since the start of the corona pandemic.
“This virus will stay. It still kills, and it keeps changing. There is still a risk of new variants emerging, leading to new increases in cases and deaths,” warned WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Pandemic had a negative effect on other healthcare sectors
According to WHO statistics, the pandemic also had a negative impact on the global fight against communicable diseases by temporarily suspending vaccination and health services. As a result, vaccinations against measles, tetanus and other diseases have declined, while malaria and tuberculosis have increased.
Outside of Corona, the WHO expressed concern that the annual number of deaths from non-communicable diseases will increase to about 77 million per year by the middle of this century – nearly 90 percent more than in 2019. Even before 2019, WHO recorded significant increases of deadly heart, respiratory and cancer diseases.
This trend was mainly driven by the increase in world population and life expectancy. However, the chance of dying from such diseases has declined for people around the world in recent decades, the WHO stressed.
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
