COVID-19 reduced global life expectancy by about two years from 2019 to 2021, erasing a decade of improvement, the World Health Organisation reported Friday.
“The COVID-19 pandemic reversed the trend of steady gain in life expectancy at birth and healthy life expectancy at birth”, the World Health Organisation stated.
According to the World Health Organization’s annual World Health Statistics report, global life expectancy declined a 1.8 years to 71.4 years, the same as in 2012.
“The amount of time the average person can expect to live in good health fell 1.5 years to 61.9 years in 2021 — also the 2012 level”, the research claimed.
The impact was harsher than the conclusions of the research published in the Lancet in January, which found that average life expectancy plummeted by 1.6 years during the pandemic.
This study’s researchers concluded that, compared to other events in the previous 50 years, Covid-19 had a more profound impact on life expectancy.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director General, stated, “The figures highlighted the importance of the global pandemic security accord being negotiated in Geneva to strengthen global health security, but to protect long-term investments in health and promote equity within and between countries”.
The Lancet researchers projected that COVID-19 caused 15.9 million extra fatalities between 2020 and 2021, either as a result of the virus or pandemic-related disruption to health systems.
However, the World Health Organisation report noted that life expectancy varied globally.
“The Americas and Southeast Asia were the hardest hit, with life expectancy dropping by about three years”, the report pointed out.
The Western Pacific suffered the least, with a 0.1-year drop in life expectancy.
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