How many people have died worldwide as a result of Covid-19?

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The Covid 19 pandemic has officially claimed more than five million lives since its outbreak in December 2020, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. That’s more than the population of Ireland or all the people living in Louisiana. But the actual cost could be much higher than we think.

The United States leads all deaths counted with 745,000, followed by Brazil, India, Mexico and Russia.

According to TIME magazine, in less than two years, covid-19 has become the third leading cause of death worldwide, after heart disease and stroke.
Are all cases accurately accounted for? Major news outlets such as the New York Times have questioned the ability of developing countries such as in regions of Africa and Latin America to accurately record corona cases.

Counting errors
India, for example, reported more than 400,000 cases during the mid-2021 delta wave and nearly 4,000 deaths in a single day. So you can imagine that a developing country facing a highly contagious virus and an overburdened health care system could make counting errors. After all, the top priority is to save lives.
Data and politics
Other experts question the accuracy of the data provided by some countries because governments are not transparent and independent sources cannot peer review the numbers.

The Washington Post reports that independent Russian experts estimate that the official death toll could be lowered by no more than 500,000. They claim that the Putin government manipulates data for political reasons.

There are many people who have died in the last two years due to illnesses indirectly related to the coronavirus. These include people who could not be treated at the height of the pandemic due to overburdening of the health care system, or people whose pre-existing conditions worsened after they were infected with the virus.

Many think the real number is 10 million dead. Professor Amber D’Souza of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is one of them. Still, he told National Geographic, “five million is an incredible number on its own.”
The rise in deaths is getting lower
It’s not all bad news, though. The reported death rate is slowly dropping as more people get vaccinated. It took three months (January to April) to go from 2 to 3 million deaths, and four months (April to July) for one million.

Countries such as Spain and Italy, which were hit hard by coronavirus in the early months of the global pandemic, are slowly returning to normal. Corona cases are steadily declining.

The fight against the virus is far from over. Thousands of people die every day from Covid-19, and there are still many unvaccinated people around the world, especially in the poorest and most vulnerable countries.
Vaccination opponents complicate the fight against the virus
Meanwhile, in developed countries, some groups are questioning the vaccine, jeopardizing all the work being done to fight the COVID-19 virus.

The longer the virus spreads through the population, the longer new mutations can develop and resistance to vaccines can emerge.