Peru revised the official number of its death tool related to COVID-19 on Monday that showed multiple increases than the initial records. Al Jazeera reported that the initial data with 69,342 significantly increased to 180,764 death toll since the pandemic hit the country last year. Because of the number of fatalities, the country is now labeled with the worst death rate per capita in the world.

The revision of the COVID death toll comes as Peru braced itself for the upcoming second round of its presidential elections.

Peru COVID Death Toll

The announcement of the revised death toll was presented by a working group that was commissioned to analyze and update the country's death toll. The revised data was presented in Peru's presidential palace. The new figures showed that more people died in Peru relative to its population than in Hungary and the Czech Republic, which has the highest official death tolls per person, according to The New York Times citing their database.

Peru can be one of the countries forced to re-evaluate its COVID death records and the true impacts of the pandemic. The New York Times mentioned The World Health Organization, saying that the death tolls from coronavirus globally "would probably be much higher" than what was recorded.

Peru's Health Minister Oscar Ugarte shared that the change in the figures was the result of the change in the criteria for assigning coronavirus as the cause of death.

"What is being said is that a significant number of deaths were not classified as caused by COVID-19," said Ugarte.

The revision of the country's COVID death toll was based on four methods in determining the cause of death of an individual.

"The first criterion is one with the greatest certainty, the virological one," said Mateo Prochazka one of the researchers. Prochazka furthered that the second method used is the rapid test, as well as the serological tests pointing out that this method was used in "the beginning of the pandemic." The fourth method the researchers taken into account is the radiological and epidemiological test.

Prochazka noted that in epidemiological and radiological tests, "compatible symptoms" were found, which is why they considered that these tests shall also be included in the methods. The revised death toll of the country included deaths between March last year and May 22, this year.

Peru Death Toll, Highest in the World

The New York Times data revealed that the official death toll of Peru before announcing the revised figures already placed ninth-highest per capita in the world. This means that Peru struggled to contain the virus since the pandemic began.

Basing on Peru's population, Al Jazeera emphasized John Hopkins data, that the country's per capita death toll is now the highest globally. Furthermore, the death toll of the country also surpassed Brazil's death toll.

"We think it is our duty to make public this updated information," said Violeta Bermudez, Peru's prime minister.

Apart from Peru, which announced their revised death toll, Brazil and Mexico also reported higher death tolls among Latin American countries.

WATCH: Global COVID-19 death toll passes 3-million mark - from DW News