At current rates, one child is orphaned every 12 seconds due to a COVID-19-associated death, and the toll is growing. Photo: World Bank
The toll is staggering The economic, developmental, and psychological impacts on these children will reverberate across generations, a tragic legacy of COVID mortality.
To examine this pressing issue, we formed a
Global Reference Group on Children Affected by COVID-19: Joint Estimates and Action through a collective of like-minded academics, practitioners from global organizations, and civil society groups.[1]
We used mortality and fertility data to model minimum estimates and rates of COVID-19-associated deaths of primary or secondary caregivers for children younger than 18 years in 21 countries. We then extrapolated these estimates to arrive at global projections. During the pandemic’s first 14 months, our minimum estimates show over 1 million children experienced death of a primary caregivers, including parents or custodial grandparent