More than five million children worldwide have been orphaned since the COVID-19 pandemic started, claims a Feb. 24 update of a Lancet study that studied data through October 2021. The previous study had looked into COVID-19 orphanhood that occurred in the 14 months between March 1, 2020, and April 30, 2021, and found there were 2,737,300 orphans during this period. The updated study extended the analysis to six additional months between May 2, 2021, and Oct. 31, 2021, and identified an extra 2,463,100 orphans. “For the entire 20-month period (March 1, 2020, to Oct. 31, 2021), we estimate that a minimum of 3,367,000 children have been orphaned globally and that 3,550,000 children have lost their primary caregivers. An additional 1,650,300 children experienced death of secondary caregivers,” said the report. “Globally, the cumulative minimum number of children affected by COVID-19-associated orphanhood and caregiver death (of) 5,200,300 exceeded the reported number of …