Europe exceeds 1.5 million deaths from coronavirus since the start of the pandemic

More than 1.5 million people died in Europe due to the coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic, according to an AFP count made from official figures this Thursday at 10:00 GMT.

In the 52 countries that are part of the region Europe the number of deaths has been on the rise since mid-July and these days it is an average of 4,210 per day.

The death figures are based on the reports communicated daily by the health authorities of each country and exclude the corrections made a posteriori by the different statistical agencies that conclude that the number of deaths is much more important.

The World Health Organization (WHO) even estimates that if the overmortality linked to covid-19 is taken into account, directly and indirectly, the balance of the pandemic could be two to three times higher than that officially registered.

Currently, the most affected country is Russia, which registers about 30% of all new cases registered in the region, with an average of 1,246 deaths per day.

These official figures are far from the real ones, according to the authorities themselves.

In total, the country counts 269,057 deaths in this pandemic, but according to the national statistics agency Rosstat, which has broader and more adapted criteria for counting coronavirus victims, the deaths in Russia were close to 450,000 at the end of September.

Behind Russia are the United Kingdom (144,286) and Italy (133,415).

In addition to deaths, infections are also increasing in Europe, reaching an average of 369,915 new cases last week, an increase of 14% compared to the previous week.

The WHO feared on Tuesday that the resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic in Europe will cause an additional 700,000 deaths between now and March if the current trend continues and that the total of deaths reaches 2.2 million in the region.

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