More than 5,2 million children up to the age of 17, worldwide, have lost at least one parent or guardian to pandemic Covid-19, according to a new international scientific study.
In Greece, the study estimates that at least 290 children have experienced the loss of one or both parents, a number that rises to 320 if custodial grandparents are included.
It is estimated that of the orphans, 14.6% are children aged up to four years, 21.8% are aged 5-9 years, while the majority (63.6% or almost two out of three) are aged 10-17 years. In fact, the orphan numbers are higher, as the study was based on data from March 2020 to October 2021, before Omicron "hit". The researchers estimate that by January 2022, about 6.7 million children will have lost a parent or guardian. More than three in four children (76.5%) have lost their fathers, while 23.5% have lost their mothers, as the coronavirus has hit men disproportionately.
The researchers, led by Dr Juliet Anwin of Imperial College London and Dr Susan Hillis of the US National Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who published the paper in the paediatric journal The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, called on the international community to prioritise the problem of pandemic orphanhood. The scientists noted that children who have experienced the loss of a parent or guardian face an increased risk of poverty, exploitation, sexual violence, abuse, HIV infection, mental health problems and severe stress, as well as gang involvement and extreme violence.
"We estimate that for every person who dies due to Covid-19, one child is orphaned or loses a guardian. This equates to one child every six seconds facing an increased risk of lifelong difficulties unless early support is provided. Therefore, support for orphaned children must be immediately integrated into any national Covid-19 response plan," said Hillies."
Prior to the pandemic, approximately 140 million children were orphaned worldwide. "It took 10 years for 5 million children to be orphaned by HIV/AIDS, while the same number of children were orphaned by Covid-19 in just two years, and these figures do not include the latest wave of the Omicron variant, which will further increase the total number of orphans," said Professor Lorraine Cher of University College London (UCL).
Calculations of orphans per head of population show that Peru and South Africa were proportionally most affected, with 8 and 7 orphans per 1,000, respectively.
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