Mexico’s 193,000 Excess Deaths Suggest Undercount of Covid Toll

(Bloomberg) -- Mexico has recorded 37% more deaths than what’s expected in a normal year.

The country released excess deaths figures Sunday night that showed 193,170 more people have died through September than what authorities expected in an average year.

Mexico has officially recorded 88,924 Covid-19 deaths, about half the number of excess deaths, and 891,160 cases. Medical experts have challenged Mexico’s level of transparency with the virus figures, while test positivity rates are among the highest in the world at about 21.5%, according to Our World in Data.

Excess deaths include those who couldn’t get proper treatment because hospitals were swamped or whose cause of death may have not been listed as Covid-19 even if they had the virus.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.