PARIS: Deaths directly or indirectly attributable to the first wave of Covid-19 infections across 21 wealthy nations earlier this year exceeded government tallies by 20 percent on average, according to a study published Wednesday.

Looking at the period from mid-February through May 2020, researchers reported 206,000 more deaths than would have been expected without the pandemic.

But only 167,148 were officially traced to the coronavirus that has swept the globe since the start of the year, infecting tens of millions.

Many of the roughly 40,000 unaccounted-for deaths were due to Covid-19 but not listed as such, especially early in the pandemic when overwhelmed hospitals in some nations were unable to systematically test patients.

Others could have resulted from disruptions in health care, such as missed treatments for cancer or lack of access to emergency services following a heart attack or accident. “The impacts of the pandemic on deaths goes beyond infection alone because it affects death in ‘indirect’ ways,” senior author Majid Ezzati, a professor of global environmental health at Imperial College London, told AFP.

The excess mortality from all causes for the 15-week period varied sharply across nations examined.

It was highest in Spain and England and Wales, which each saw 100 “extra” deaths per 100,000 people, about 37 percent above what would been expected absent the pandemic.

England and Wales, Spain and Italy accounted for three-quarters of the total number of excess deaths, the study found. Belgium and Scotland were also hit hard.

At the other end of the spectrum, countries that showed no detectable rise in deaths in the spring included Bulgaria, New Zealand, Slovakia, Australia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Norway, Denmark and Finland.

The rest of the countries analysed — Austria, Switzerland, Portugal, France, the Netherlands and Sweden — fell somewhere in between. The 206,000 excess deaths were almost evenly divided between men and women, a finding at odds with death rates reported in hospitals, where a significantly higher proportion of victims were male.

Figuring out exactly how many people have died during a pandemic is deceptively difficult, scientists say.

Tallies limited to “confirmed cases” will miss many Covid deaths that were misdiagnosed or not tested in the first place. Methods also vary.—AFP