Washington, Sep 12 (IANS): Nearly 16,000 Covid-19 nursing home deaths in the US were unreported during the early months of the pandemic, a report led by Harvard researcher Karen Shen has revealed.

The report, published in the JAMA Network Open, found the missing numbers take up 14 per cent of all nursing home deaths in 2020, reports Xinhua news agency.

By studying data across 20 states, the report found that 44 per cent of all Covid-19 cases and 40 per cent of deaths in nursing homes counted by states health departments were unaccounted for in the federal data.

"This may demonstrate a widespread inability of nursing homes to reliably collect data early in the pandemic or that pressures to report fewer cases and deaths were common to all facilities," the researchers wrote.

The US is witnessing a Covid-19 resurgence fuelled by the highly transmissible Delta variant.

As of Sunday morning, the total number of confirmed cases in the country increased to 40,920,922, while the death toll stood at 659,691, according to the Johns Hopkins University's latest data.

The two tallies are the highest in the world, making the US the worst hit country.