Fauci says U.S. COVID-19 death toll undercounted

People spend time at the National Mall in Washington D.C., the United States, May 6, 2021. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)

"... I think there's no doubt that we are and have been undercounting," said Anthony Fauci, top U.S. infectious disease expert.

WASHINGTON, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The United States has undercounted the number of deaths caused by COVID-19, Anthony Fauci, top U.S. infectious disease expert, said on Sunday.

"You know, the model says that it's a significant amount, as you mentioned correctly, 900,000. That's a bit more than I would have thought the undercounting was, but, you know, sometimes the models are right on line, sometimes they're a bit off," Fauci said in a TV programme, responding to a question as to whether he believes the true death toll is as high as suggested by a new study from the University of Washington.

The study suggested that the total number of U.S. deaths could be estimated at more than 905,000.

"But I think there's no doubt that we are and have been undercounting. What that tells us is something that we've known. You know, we're living through a historic pandemic, the likes of which we haven't seen in over a hundred years," Fauci said.

The United States reported a total of 32,707,359 cases with 581,752 deaths as of Sunday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.