Globally, the new study suggests, two out of three children orphaned from COVID-19 are adolescents aged 10 to 17 years.”Sadly, as high as our estimates of orphanhood and caregiver deaths are, they are likely to be underestimates, and we expect these numbers to grow as more global data on COVID-19 deaths becomes available,” said Juliette Unwin, lead study author from Imperial College London, UK.”Real-time updated data suggests the true totals reached 6.7 million children as of January 2022. While our current study looked at estimates through October 2021, the pandemic is still raging worldwide, which means COVID-19 related orphanhood will also continue to surge,” Unwin said.The number of children affected in the 20 countries studied ranged from 2,400 in Germany to more than 1.9 million in India, the researchers said.Calculations of estimated orphanhood cases per capita showed the highest rates were in Peru and South Africa, with 8 and 7 out of every 1,000 children affected, respectively, they said.
Source link
