The attribution of deaths to specific causes can be challenging under any circumstances.
→ We provide more detail on these three points in the section ‘ Deaths from COVID-19: background‘. Since reporting can vary significantly from day to day – irrespectively of any actual variation of deaths – it is helpful to view the seven-day rolling average of the daily figures as we do in the chart here. The death figures on a given date do not necessarily show the number of new deaths on that day, but the deaths reported on that day.How COVID-19 deaths are recorded may differ between countries (e.g., some countries may only count hospital deaths, whilst others also include deaths in homes).The difference between reported confirmed deaths and actual deaths varies by country. The actual death toll from COVID-19 is likely to be higher than the number of confirmed deaths – this is due to limited testing and problems in the attribution of the cause of death.Three points on confirmed death figures to keep in mindĪll three points are true for all currently available international data sources on COVID-19 deaths: This chart shows the number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths per day.
