This milestone is yet another tragic reminder of the relentless nature of the pandemic even though people are starting to shed their masks and travel is returning to normal. Businesses are also reopening all around the world. Johns Hopkins University compiled the death toll on Sunday afternoon.
Remote Pacific islands whose isolation has protected them for over two years are now facing their first epidemics and deaths, fueled in part by the highly contagious Omicron variant.
Hong Kong is experiencing a rise in deaths. is testing its entire population (7.5 million) three times a month to ensure it sticks to the “zero COVID” strategy.
The death rate in Poland, Hungary and Romania is still high, and more than 1,000,000 refugees have arrived from war-torn Ukraine , a country with low vaccination coverage and high cases and deaths.
Despite its wealth and availability of vaccines, the United States is close to 1,000,000 deaths.
According to Tikki Pan, a visiting professor at Singapore’s National University of Singapore’s Medical School and co-Chair of Asia Pacific Immunization Coalition, the death rates are still high among those who have not been vaccinated against the disease.
“This is a disease that affects the unvaccinated. Look at what’s happening in Hong Kong right this moment, the health system has been overwhelmed,” stated Pang, who was previously the director of research policy, cooperation, and the World Health Organization. “The majority of deaths and severe cases occur in the unvaccinated and vulnerable population.”
The world took seven months to register its first million deaths due to the virus. It began in early 2020. Another million people died four months later, and one million per month since then, up to the death total of 5 million at October’s end. It now stands at 6 million, more than all of Maryland’s population combined.
The world has reached its 6 millionth death since 2001, despite this staggering figure. In many places, poor record-keeping and testing has resulted in an undercount of coronavirus deaths. This is in addition to excessive deaths from COVID-19 infection, but not from the pandemic.
Edouard Mathieu is the head of data at the Our World in Data portal. He stated that nearly four times as many people have died from the pandemic when excess mortality figures for countries are analyzed.
A team from The Economist has done an analysis of excessive deaths caused by and found that there are between 14 million to 23.5 million COVID-19-related deaths.
Mathieu stated that only a small fraction of COVID-related deaths are confirmed. This is mainly due to limited testing and difficulties in attributing the cause of death. This fraction is high in some countries, which can be considered fairly accurate. However, it is greatly underestimated in others.
The United States is the country with the highest death toll, but they have seen a downward trend in recent months.
Lonnie Bailey lost Carlos Nunez Jr., his 17-year old nephew, to COVID-19 in April. This was the same month Kentucky opened his age bracket to vaccinations. According to the Louisville resident, Carlos’ younger sibling is still in pain and has had to be admitted to hospital. They have been shocked at the aggressive reopenings of the country.
Bailey stated that it was difficult for them to relax and it would take some time to get used to it.
The World Health Organization reported that there have been more than 445 million COVID-19 confirmed cases. In addition, new weekly cases are declining in all regions, except the Western Pacific. This includes South Korea, Japan, China and Japan.
Although the numbers of the first Pacific island outbreaks are not as high as those in larger countries, they are still significant for their small populations and could overwhelm fragile health care systems.
“Given all that we know about COVID, it’s likely that they will be hit for at least the next year,” Katie Greenwood, head Red Cross Pacific delegation.
Tonga experienced its first epidemic after the virus, which arrived on international aid vessels in response to the Jan. 15 eruption by a large volcano, and subsequent tsunami. Although it now has several hundred cases, 66% of the population is fully vaccinated. There have been no deaths.
The Solomon Islands experienced the first epidemic in January. There are now thousands of cases and over 100 deaths. Greenwood stated that the death toll could be much higher as the capital’s hospital was overwhelmed and many people dying at home.
Only 12% are fully vaccinated in Solomon Island, but the outbreak has given new life to the country’s vaccination campaign. 29% have had at least one shot.
The global vaccine disparity continues with 6.95% of low-income people fully vaccinated, while more than 73% live in high-income countries, according to Our World in Data.
It is encouraging that Africa has surpassed Europe in daily doses at the end last month, although only 12.5% have received two shots.
Although it is difficult, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to push for more vaccines. Some shipments arrive without warning to countries’ health systems, and some are near expiration dates — forcing them to destroy their doses.
Eastern Europe has been especially hard hit by the Omicron variant. With the Russian invasion in Ukraine, a new threat has emerged. hundreds and thousands flee to Poland on crowded trains. Although they have offered free vaccinations to refugees, they have not made them undergo quarantine or a test upon arrival.
“This is very tragic, because high stress can have a very negative impact on natural immunity and increase the risk of infection,” Anna Boron-Kaczmarska (a Polish infectious disease specialist) said. “They are under extreme stress and fear for their lives and the lives of their family members, as well as their children’s lives.”
Mexico has reported 300,000. However, there was not enough testing to determine if the death rate is closer to 500,000. Despite this, health officials remain optimistic after four weeks of declining infection rates.
The scars left by India’s shocking images of open air pyres and bodies being burned in crematoria are slowly fading.
India has seen more than 500,000 deaths. But experts believe the true number of victims are in the millions. This is primarily due to the delta variant. Many migrants from India’s hinterland are returning to the megacities for work, and the streets are jam-packed with people. After a long gap, students are now welcomed to schools and universities.
Although infections in Britain have declined since December’s omicron-driven spike, they remain high. England has lifted all restrictions, including mask mandates. It also removed the requirement that all people who are positive for infection must be tested at home.
The African continent has about 250,000 deaths. This is largely due to underreporting and a more mobile population.
“Africa is a big mystery mark for me because it has been relatively spared the worst so far but it could just be an time bomb,” Pang stated, noting low vaccination rates.
Thoko Dube, a Soweto resident, said that she was informed of the deaths by two relatives on January 2021. This happened a month before South Africa received its first vaccines.
Although it was difficult, she stated that the family was coping. We have accepted it, because it is what has happened to other families.”
