The authors say it's important to distinguish between deaths caused directly by COVID and those that happened as an indirect result, such as due to restricted access to healthcare and services.
However, researchers believe 21 countries had excess deaths rates greater than 300 per 100,000.
In sheer numbers, South Asia was the region estimated to have had most excess deaths - 5.3 million; with India having the highest of any country at 4.1 million. Large differences between official figures and excess deaths could be due to under diagnosis from lack of testing and problems reporting death data, according to the authors.
Initial studies suggest a significant proportion of the excess deaths are directly down to the disease. But others may be down to problems accessing healthcare and services - as well as causes such as suicide or drug use.They also acknowledge limitations to their work, such as using a model to predict excess death from countries that didn't report weekly or monthly data., said:"Understanding the true death toll from the pandemic is vital for effective public health decision-making.
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