GENEVA, May 5. /TASS/. About 14.9 mln excess deaths associated with the coronavirus pandemic were recorded in 2020 and 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement on Thursday.

"New estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO) show that the full death toll associated directly or indirectly with the COVID-19 pandemic (described as ‘excess mortality’) between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2021, was approximately 14.9 mln (range 13.3 mln to 16.6 mln)," the statement reads.

"Excess mortality is calculated as the difference between the number of deaths that have occurred and the number that would be expected in the absence of the pandemic based on data from earlier years," the WHO explained.

According to the WHO, "most of the excess deaths (84%) are concentrated in South-East Asia, Europe, and the Americas." "Some 68% of excess deaths are concentrated in just ten countries globally," the organization added. "The global death toll was higher for men than for women (57% male, 43% female) and higher among older adults," the statement said.

"These sobering data not only point to the impact of the pandemic but also to the need for all countries to invest in more resilient health systems that can sustain essential health services during crises, including stronger health information systems," WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus pointed out.

According to the WHO, a total of 512,607,587 coronavirus cases and 6,243,038 fatalities were recorded globally as of May 4. The United States accounted for the majority of confirmed cases (80,676,055), followed by India (43,088,118) and Brazil (30,460,997). The US also ranked first for coronavirus deaths (986,698), followed by Brazil (663,602), India (523,920) and Russia (376,421).