Official data from Spain did not include suspected cases that were not tested (representation)
Madrid:
The number of deaths from COVID-19 in Spain could be almost 60% higher than the official figure of 28,432, according to an investigation by El Pais newspaper published on Sunday.
The country’s official death tally includes only people who have been officially diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, and not suspected cases who have never been tested.
A lack of widespread testing, especially in the early stages of the outbreak, means the official tally could underestimate the toll of the virus, as in many other countries.
Counting regional statistics of all suspected and confirmed deaths from the virus, El Pais reached a total of 44,868 deaths. If this is correct, it would make Spain’s epidemic the second deadliest in Europe after Britain’s.
The health ministry said it was following all international protocols to count deaths from COVID-19 and stressed that the higher number of deaths was reflected in other official indicators.
“There is evidence that in all pandemics there is an increase in indirect deaths,” he added. “This has also happened with the COVID-19 pandemic.”
El Pais’s figure is roughly in line with figures from the National Epidemiology Center and the National Statistics Center (INE) – two government institutions – which record excess mortality by comparing deaths across the country with historical averages.
In June, the INE reported 43,945 more deaths in the first 21 weeks of 2020 than in the same period of 2019, although it cannot say how many could be attributed to the pandemic.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
