Millions of Covid dead

MORE than 18 million people may have died in the Covid-19 pandemic in its first two years, according to new research from international modellers.

While the official Covid-19 death toll was 5.9 million from the start of 2020 to the end of 2021, the researchers compiled excess death statistics from around the world compared with average death tolls before the pandemic.

Using modelling to plug gaps in the data, the researchers estimate excess deaths of 18.2 million, with the highest death rates being registered in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Southern subSaharan Africa.

The modelling shows that Australia is one of a handful of countries that appears to have had fewer deaths than usual over those two years of the pandemic.