Britain ranks 56th in world league table of Covid deaths thanks to jabs, WHO report reveals

BRITAIN ranks 56th in a world league table of Covid deaths as health chiefs say 15million people died globally in 2020 and 2021.

A World Health Organisation report reveals the UK had 109 more deaths than usual per 100,000 people in the two years.

That is lower than Germany, Italy, Spain and the US — and way below Peru, which was worst with 437 excess fatalities per 100,000.

Scientists and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer claimed our toll was the worst in Europe at the height of the crisis.

The report says many countries under-counted Covid deaths and the global figure is between 13.3million and 16.6million — far higher than the official six million.

The UK was hit hard and early by the bug in 2020 but jabs brought a change of fortunes last year.

Dr Simon Clarke, from the University of Reading, said: “We had early access to the vaccines and we would have been in a much worse situation without them.

“We’re not the worst affected country and we shouldn’t be – we’re one of the most developed countries in the world.”

WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called the estimates “sobering”.

Former Sage member Sir Jeremy Farrar said: “Governments must learn from this crisis and make sure they do everything they can to prevent this ever happening again.”

A total of 150,142 Brits had died within a month of testing positive for Covid by the end of 2021.

The WHO report estimates that just 20 out of 194 countries account for 80 per cent of all the Covid deaths.

Worst-hit countries by number included India, with the most total deaths at 4.7m, and Brazil, Germany, Iran, Italy, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Ukraine and the UK and US.