About 159,000 more people in 24 European countries have died since early March than would have ordinarily been expected, a World Health Organisation (WHO) official has said, with a “significant proportion” of the spike linked to Covid-19.

While the figure for excess deaths takes into account all mortality causes, Katie Smallwood, a WHO emergency official, said its timing — recorded as thousands of people were dying in intensive care units in places like northern Italy, France, Spain and Britain — points to Covid-19’s deadly impact.

“What we have seen very clearly is that the peak in excess mortality corresponds in those countries to the peak of the transmission of Covid-19,” Smallwood told reporters, according to Reuters. “This gives us a very good indication that a very significant proportion of this excess deaths is linked and due to Covid-19.”