More than one million children have lost a parent to Covid-19 and will grow up "profoundly damaged" unless they are given a helping hand, according to a new study.
Covid-19 has been dubbed the 'hidden pandemic of orphanhood' after 1.5 million youngster were found to have lost their mother, father or a caring relative.
Losing a parent or close family member at a young age often has negative consequences on the child's health, safety and well-being.
To date, more than 4.1 million people have lost their lives to Covid-19, including in excess of 128,500 in Britain.
But for every Covid-19 death worldwide, a child is left behind to face life without at least one of their parents or a supporting relative, according to the findings published in The Lancet.
Urgent action is needed to support these 'mourning children' before it is too late, say researchers.
Study lead author Professor Lucie Cluver, of Oxford University, said: "We have strong evidence from HIV and Ebola to guide solutions.
"We need to support extended families or foster families to care for children, with cost-effective economic strengthening, parenting programs, and school access.
"We need to vaccinate caregivers of children, especially grandparent caregivers.
"And we need to respond fast because every 12 seconds a child loses their caregiver to COVID-19."
The researchers took inspiration from modelling techniques used to calculate the number of children orphaned by AIDS and other diseases in the past.
Mortality data from 21 countries, accounting for 77 per cent of all global Covid deaths, was analysed.
This included Covid deaths which had been reported between 1 March 2020 and 30 April 2021 and any excess deaths from other causes.
By combining their results with fertility data for males and females in each country, the researchers were able to calculate how many children had lost a parent to Covid.
Their analysis was then extended to include deaths of grandparents or other older adults, aged between 60 and 84 years, who were living in the same household.
Mathematical models were then used to extrapolate their results to the rest of the world.
At least 1,134,000 children lost a parent or grandparent to the virus, the researchers found.
Of these, 1,042,000 lost their mother or father, or both and overall, 1,562,000 children lost a parent or caring older relative.
Peru, South Africa and Mexico were the countries where children were most likely to lose their primary caregiver, followed by Brazil, Colombia, Iran, the United States and Russia.
Also, in April 2021, India saw an 8.5-fold increase in the numbers of newly orphaned children (43,139) compared to March 2021 (5,091).
In almost every country, men were more likely to succumb to the virus than women, particularly if they were middle aged or older.
Overall, up to five times more children lost their fathers than lost their mothers, the researchers say.
Lead author Dr Seth Flaxman at Imperial College London said: "The hidden pandemic of orphanhood is a global emergency, and we can ill afford to wait until tomorrow to act.
"Out of control Covid-19 epidemics abruptly and permanently alter the lives of the children who are left behind."
Orphaned children, of which there were around 140 million worldwide before the global pandemic, face higher risks of mental health problems, poverty and physical, emotional and sexual violence.
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