Death toll from COVID-19 in Pak is eight times higher than government-reported figure, WHO says

NNA |
Update: 07 May 2022 21:54 STI
Lahore [Pakistan]May 7 (ANI): The actual death toll from COVID-19 in Pakistan was eight times higher than the figure reported by the government, according to estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO).
According to the recent WHO report, the coronavirus pandemic killed an estimated 14.9 million people worldwide between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2021. The United Nations health agency estimated that almost triple of the number of people who have died worldwide due to the infection as the data show.
The agency further raised questions about the death toll from COVID-19 in Pakistan stating that “in Pakistan the figure was eight times higher”.
Pakistan, on the other hand, has only reported 30,369 Covid-19 deaths with more than 1.5 million infections, as Geo TV reports.
Meanwhile, the country has denied the claims of WHO reports, former special assistant to the Prime Minister at the time, Dr Faisal Sultan, has called WHO data on coronavirus deaths in Pakistan of “unreliable”.
Defending the government’s death reports, he said “studies of the number of burials in cemeteries in major cities have not revealed large numbers of uncountable victims of the pandemic,” Geo TV reported.
Dr Sultan added: “I have to review the WHO report in detail. We checked the cemetery register to determine the number of deaths from coronavirus. We also checked this register through our own system.”
Dr Sultan added: “Our death toll from corona was accurate but it’s not possible to have a 100% correct death rate, it could be 10-30% lower, but to say it’s was eight times less is incredible.(ANI)