GENEVA: The World Health Organization reported on Friday that around 337 million life years were lost in the two first years of the Covid-19 pandemic, as millions of people died prematurely.
The annual world statistics report by the UN health agency also indicated an increasing threat from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease.
Based on data up to 2022, the estimate of how many years of life Covid has taken was the most shocking finding, WHO said. Officially, the pandemic has claimed the lives of around seven million individuals, but it is believed that the exact death toll is closer to twenty million.
However, the WHO officially reported 5.4 million Covid related deaths in 2020 and 2021, its excess mortality data indicates around 14.9 million people likely lost their lives due to the crisis over that time.
Perhaps even more startlingly, it claimed that just in those two years, Covid caused the loss of 336.8 million years that would have been lived worldwide. According to Samira Asma, WHO’s associate chief for data and analytics, “It’s like losing 22 years of life for every excess death,” she told reporters before the launch.
