Global Covid-19 death toll surpasses grim 6 million mark
BANGKOK: The official global death toll from coronavirus infection eclipsed the 6 millionmark on Monday, underscoring that the pandemic, now in its third year, is far from over. The milestone is the latest tragic reminder of the unrelenting nature of the pandemic even as people are shedding masks, travel is resuming and businesses are reopening around the globe. The toll, compiled by Johns Hopkins University, stood at 6,000,316 on Monday afternoon.
Remote Pacific islands, whose isolation had protected them for more than two years, are just now grappling with their first outbreaks and deaths, fuelled by the highly contagious Omicron variant. Hong Kong, which is seeing deaths soar, is testing its entire population of 7.5 million three times this month.
As death rates remain high in Poland, Hungary, Romania and other eastern European countries, the region has seen more than 1 million refugees arrive from war-torn Ukraine, a country with poor vaccination coverage and high rates of cases and deaths.
And despite its wealth and vaccine availability, the United States is nearing 1 million reported deaths on its own.
In India, where images emerged of open-air pyres of bodies burned as crematoria were overwhelmed, the scars are fading as the rise in new cases and deaths has slowed. India has recorded more than 500,000 deaths, but experts believe its true toll is in the millions, primarily from the delta variant.
Death rates worldwide are still highest among people unvaccinated against the virus, said Tikki Pang, a co-Chair of the Asia Pacific Immunization Coalition.
“This is a disease of the unvaccinated” said Pang.
It took the world seven months to record its first million Covid-19 deaths after the pandemic began in early 2020. Four months later, another million people died, and 1 million have died every three months since, until the death toll hit 5 million in October-end, and now it has reached 6 million.
But despite the enormity of the figure, the world undoubtedly hit its 6 millionth death some time ago.
Poor record-keeping and testing in many parts of the world has led to an undercount in coronavirus deaths, in addition to excess deaths related to the pandemic but not from actual Covid-19 infections, like people who died from preventable causes but could not receive treatment because hospitals were full.
An analysis of excess deaths by a team at The Economist estimates that the number of Covid-19 deaths is between 14 million and 23.5 million.
The world has seen more than 445 million confirmed Covid-19 cases, and new weekly cases have been declining recently in all regions except for the Western Pacific, which includes China, Japan and South Korea, among others, the World Health Organization reported this week.