Dubai Expo Revises Death Count To 6 After Including Covid-Related Deaths

Expo 2020 Dubai reported three more worker deaths on the project due to COVID-19, in addition to its three previously disclosed construction-related deaths.

Expo 2020 Dubai, a major world fair that opened last week, on Sunday said three workers on the project had died after contracting COVID-19, revising up the number of fatalities since 2015 to six workers.

The organiser had for the first time on Saturday disclosed three work-related deaths and 72 serious injuries among 200,000 workers during construction of the site, defending the accident rate as less than half of that of building work in Britain.

"Unfortunately we had three worker related deaths due to Covid. That was during the course of the pandemic," Expo representative Sconaid McGeachin told a daily briefing. McGeachin said the three deaths disclosed earlier were construction-related.

She referred reporters to local authorities for comment on how many Expo workers had so far caught COVID-19. The Dubai government media office did not immediately respond to an emailed Reuters request for comment.