Many countries incorrectly track the number of people dying from COVID-19

At the time of this writing, March 31, 2020years, the coronavirus COVID-19 has affected more than 800,000 inhabitants of our planet. In total, about 38,714 people died from the disease, with most of the deaths occurring in Italy (11 591), Spain (8 189) and China (3 187). Given that only one virus is to blame for the deaths of thousands of people, these are very scary numbers. These figures can actually be even worse, because scientists studying the onset and spread of diseases believe that many countries do not correctly track the number of deaths from coronavirus. For example, in one region of our planet, deaths of people in nursing homes are not taken into account, and authorities in some countries ask relatives of the deceased for permission to take them into statistics. Because of this, the number of real deaths may be greater than what people are told.

Coronavirus death statistics may not be accurate due to incorrect estimates

Coronavirus death statistics

That the governments of different countries are differenttrack the number of deaths from coronavirus, El Pais said. Unfortunately, it is not known how the number of deaths is monitored by the Russian government, but journalists shared information about Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, France and the UK. All these countries, to one degree or another, make mistakes in calculating deaths from coronavirus.

You can read about what you need to know about coronavirus in our material. And the spread of the virus in Russia can be traced on a special map from Yandex.

For example, deaths are not counted in Spain,occurred in nursing homes. But most often older people over 60 years old die from coronavirus. According to El Pais reporters, by March 26, 352 people had died in them and, perhaps, the cause of some deaths was coronavirus. But it is worth considering that these data were collected by journalists, and the Ministry of Health did not share data on deaths in nursing homes.

Most often, older people over 60 die from coronavirus

A similar situation with statistics is happening inFrance. It is known that there the authorities count the number of deaths that occurred in 600 local clinics and hospitals serving patients with COVID-19. That is, the statistics of deaths in this country do not include older people living in 7,000 nursing homes. But the situation is already changing, because after learning about the large number of coronavirus victims among older people, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that from March 30, authorities will monitor these institutions.

By order of Emmanuel Macron, the French authorities will take into account the number of deaths in nursing homes

Inaccuracies in the calculations are in other countries. According to the Higher Institute of Health, authorities Italy include only cases in official statisticsdeath of patients with confirmed coronavirus. If a person died in a hospital, he is counted, but if in a nursing home - no. If a 70-year-old man died at home, they are more likely to be considered dead from old age, because the coronavirus test is unlikely to be done dead, because they are not enough even for the living. It follows that it is practically impossible to accurately assess mortality from coronavirus - for this, all dead people need to be tested.

IN The Netherlands only deaths of hospitalized patients are considered. IN Germany coronavirus-related deaths are recorded intwo cases: if a person died directly from the disease, or from complications of existing diseases that this disease could cause. Finding out if complications were caused by coronavirus helps an autopsy in the morgue.

The other day, my colleague Lyubov Sokovikova wrote an article about how much we will be forced to quarantine in 2020. I recommend reading it!

In Spain and many other countrieslack of disease test kits. As a result, many people do not know that they are infected and the authorities, respectively, are also not aware of them. The statistics includes information on a smaller number of infected people, while mortality data are usually closer to the truth. The result is that there are few infected people, and relatively many deaths. Thus, the mortality rate from COVID-19 is higher than it is in reality.

Or another situation: a person has had a coronavirus with mild symptoms or no symptoms at all. Thus, this person is not taken into account in the statistics of patients. And according to experts, there are a lot of such people, especially among children and youth. As a result, it turns out that the number of cases is underestimated, and the percentage of deaths is correspondingly higher than the real one.

What is the result? The authorities of all countries should reconsider their methods of tracking the number of deaths. We can’t influence this in any way, but we can literally save the planet simply by staying at home. In Moscow and many other regions of our country, a self-isolation regime has been declared. Going out is allowed only in case of urgent need: a trip to the nearest store or pharmacy or walking pets at a distance of no more than 100 meters from the house. With all this, do not forget about WHO recommendations, such as regular washing of hands and products. Take care of yourself and be healthy!