More than 10.5 million children worldwide have lost a parent or caregiver, and 7.5 million children have lost one or both parents to the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study estimates.This sobering statistic far exceeds previous estimates and continues to grow.The findings were published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.According to the researchers, only the United States and Peru have made national commitments to address children orphaned by COVID-19.The researchers found significant modeling differences, with higher numbers of children orphaned by the loss of primary and/or secondary caregivers in Africa at 24.3% and Southeast Asia at 40.6%, compared with the Americas at 14.0%, the Eastern Mediterranean at 14.6%, the European region at 4.7% and the Western Pacific region at 1.8%, according to May 1.The research letter also cites similarly wide variations at the national level: India, where 3.49 million children were orphaned by COVID-19; Indonesia, 660,000; Egypt, 450,000; Nigeria, 430,000; and Pakistan, 410,000, were the countries most affected by children as of May 1 of this year. Among the worst-affected WHO regions, the countries with the greatest number of lost children in Southeast Asia include Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Myanmar and Nepal, researchers said.And in Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa have the highest number of bereaved children.They called on each national pandemic response plan to include timely care for these children and to try to prevent caregiver deaths by speeding up vaccination, containment and treatment.
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