Iran Press/ America: Researchers accepted that reporting delays could be a contributing factor but said shortfalls in clinical staffing, capacity, and experience at weekends were also likely to play a role.
Overall, the average number of global deaths from coronavirus were six percent higher on weekends compared to weekdays - 8,532 compared to 8,083 - throughout the pandemic, researchers said.
Experts from the University of Toronto in Canada analyzed all deaths reported to the World Health Organisation COVID-19 database between March 7, 2020, and March 7, 2022.
The findings, which are due to be presented at this year's European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Portugal later this month, suggest the US had, on average, 1483 weekend deaths compared to 1220 on weekdays - a 22 percent increase.
Brazil had an average of 1061 weekend deaths compared to 823 on weekdays, which is a 29 percent increase, and the UK had on average 239-weekend deaths compared to 215 on weekdays - an 11 percent increase.
A further study looking at the average number of COVID deaths on individual days of the week found the increase was particularly big when comparing Sunday to Monday - 8850 compared to 7219 deaths - and Friday to Monday - 9086 compared to 7219.
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