Widespread hunger due to the COVID-19 pandemic could push half a billion people into poverty, according to Oxfam, a confederation of 19 independent charitable organizations focusing on the alleviation of global poverty

Already, there are about 135 million at “crisis levels of hunger or worse,” according to the UN.

Added to that are nations like India that did not anticipate a food crisis this year, but are experiencing hunger because people can’t earn money to buy food due to policies designed to limit the spread of the virus.

"As COVID-19 marches across the world, the threat of illness and death is meeting an even greater concern as the disease threatens places already suffering from poverty, conflict, and drought. Hunger is now the greater concern in poor countries where people struggle to earn enough to eat each day, or grow the food on which their families and local markets rely," Oxfam said in a statement published Thursday.

The Covid-19 pandemic is projected to remove four years of growth from the global economy -- or almost $8.5 trillion in total output -- according to a new United Nations study.

A 3.2% reduction in global GDP is forecast this year, according to the United Nations World Economic Situation and Prospects report released on Wednesday. The projections follow the IMF World Economic Outlook report in April, which anticipated a 3% decline this year.

On Tuesday, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said that the economic forecasts may be further downgraded next month based on weak data since the mid-April IMF report.

“The pandemic will likely cause an estimated 34.3 million people to fall below the extreme poverty line in 2020, with 56% of this increase occurring in African countries,” according to the UN report. “An additional 130 million people may join the ranks of people living in extreme poverty by 2030, dealing a huge blow to global efforts for eradicating extreme poverty and hunger.”The pandemic may accelerate digitalization and automation, which could eliminate many existing jobs, the study said. The net wage and employment effects could be negative, further aggravating income inequality.

Material from Bloomberg news service was used in this story.