The global Covid death toll may be greater than 15million, researchers have claimed — more than three times higher than the official count.
Experts said deaths in China, India, Russia, Latin America and Africa may have been undercounted.
Many people who died from Covid were never tested and excess deaths also increased because of the number of people dying from untreated preventable diseases as a result of hospitals being full with virus patients.
Deaths in Nicaragua could be as much as 9,900 per cent higher than the reported 200, the experts claimed.
The global Covid death toll may have reached 15million, researchers have claimed — four times higher than the official count. Pictured
The researchers said: 'Measured by excess deaths as a share of population, many of the world's hardest-hit countries are in Latin America.
'Although Russia's suggests that it has protected its citizens tolerably well, its numbers on total mortality imply that it has in fact been hit quite hard by Covid.
'Similarly, we estimate that India's death toll is actually in the millions, rather than the hundreds of thousands.'
The research by the Economist suggests real Covid deaths in Haiti could be 2,200 per cent higher than recorded and 1,100 per cent higher in Venezuela.
Graph shows: Covid deaths per million people in Mexico, the US, Brazil, the UK, Peru and India — the five countries with the highest fatalities in recent weeks
Graph shows: Covid cases per million people in Malaysia, the US, Brazil, the UK, Iran and India — the five countries with the highest infections in recent weeks
The top five countries for underreported Covid deaths were in Africa, with Tanzania topping the list.
It has only reported 50 Covid deaths but researchers estimated the true figure was likely to be between 15,000 and 67,000.
Some 41 countries including the UK were found to have fewer people die than expected.
Britain's official figure of 133,041 is 10 per cent lower than expected deaths based on trends across the world.
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