The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Friday that global life expectancy, or the survival rate, has declined due to the coronavirus pandemic. The organization reported that a decade of progress has been undone by the pandemic. This UN health agency noted that COVID-19 has reversed the previously stable trend of increasing life expectancy and healthy life expectancy at birth.
WHO reported that the World Statistics Study shows global life expectancy has decreased by 1.8 years to 71.4 years, returning to the 2012 level. This means that Covid-19 has set back human progress by a decade. The study also found that in 2021, the average age of a healthy person decreased by 1.5 years to 61.9 years, which was also the life expectancy rate in 2012. Previously, a report published in Lancet revealed similar findings, indicating that average life expectancy decreased by 1.6 years during the pandemic.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom emphasized that these figures highlight the importance of the global pandemic security agreement underway in Geneva. He stated that the goal of global health security is to raise health awareness, encourage long-term investments, and promote a sense of equality among all countries.
The WHO report has disclosed that Covid has not caused a uniform decline in life expectancy worldwide. The study indicates that America and South East Asia experienced the most significant impact from Covid, with life expectancy decreasing by approximately 3 years in both regions. Conversely, the Western Pacific region encountered the least impact, with life expectancy decreasing by only 0.1 years.
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