Official tolls showing the number of deaths directly or indirectly attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to be a "significant undercount", the World Health Organization (WHO) says.

The WHO said 6 to 8 million people may have died so far.

Presenting its annual World Health Statistics report, they estimated total deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 were at least 3 million, or 1.2 million more than officially reported.

"We are likely facing a significant undercount of total deaths directly and indirectly attributed to COVID-19," it said.

The UN agency officially estimates that around 3.4 million people have died directly as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic by May 2021.

"This number would truly be two to three times higher. So I think safely about 6 to 8 million deaths could be an estimate on a cautionary note," said Samira Asma, WHO's Assistant Director-General in its data and analytics division, at a virtual press briefing.

WHO data analyst William Msemburi said this estimate included both unreported COVID-19 deaths as well as indirect deaths due to the lack of hospital capacity and restrictions on movements, among other factors.

"The challenge is that the reported COVID-19 (death toll figures) is an undercount of that full impact," Mr Msemburi said.

The WHO did not give a breakdown of the figure, referred to by health experts as "excess mortality".

In India, officials predict numbers are much higher than official reports. On Friday there were 259,551 new coronavirus infections over the last 24 hours, while deaths rose by 4,209. 

The South Asian nation's infection tally stands at 26.03 million, with a death toll of 291,331, health ministry data showed.

Meanwhile, Malaysia reported 6,493 new coronavirus cases amid a recent surge in infections, bringing the total to 498,795.

The number of new cases was not too far from the record high of 6,806 reported on Thursday, when Malaysia also saw its highest daily toll of 59 deaths.

Reuters