India Registered Over a 3rd of Global Infant Deaths Due To Economic Slowdown During The Covid-19 Pandemic
News 18India accounts for more than a third of the global excess infant deaths in 2020 due to the economic slowdown caused by Covid-19, according to a study led by World bank researchers. The study, published in the online journal BMJ Open, showed that the economic downturn caused by Covid-19 resulted in an additional 2,67,208 infant deaths in low- and middle-income countries in 2020. “Regardless of the exact number of projected deaths, the large number of excess infant deaths estimated in our analysis underscores the vulnerability of this age group to negative aggregate income shocks, such as those induced by the Covid-19 pandemic,” they researchers wrote. They then applied International Monetary Fund economic growth projections for 2019 and 2020 to predict the effect of the economic downturn in 2020 on infant deaths in 128 countries.