‘Disease of the unvaccinated’: Pandemic death toll nears 6 million

The official global death toll from Covid-19 is on the verge of eclipsing six million — 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 death toll, compiled by Johns Hopkins University, stood at 5,998,454 as of yesterday.

Remote Pacific islands, whose isolation had protected them for more than two years, are now grappling with their first outbreaks and deaths, fuelled by the Omicron variant.

Hong Kong, which is seeing deaths soar, is testing its entire population of 7.5 million three times this month as it clings to mainland China’s “zeroCovid” strategy.

As death rates remain high in Poland, Hungary, Romania and other Eastern European countries, the region has seen more than 1.5 million refugees arrive from war-torn Ukraine, a country with poor vaccination coverage and high rates of cases and deaths.

Death rates worldwide are still highest among people unvaccinated against the virus, said Tikki Pang, a visiting professor at the National University of Singapore’s medical school and co-Chair of the Asia Pacific Immunisation Coalition.

“This is a disease of the unvaccinated — look what is happening in Hong Kong right now, the health system is being overwhelmed,” said Pang, a former director of research policy and cooperation with the World Health Organisation. “The large majority of the deaths and the severe cases are in the unvaccinated, vulnerable segment of the population.”

Despite the enormity of the figure, the world undoubtedly hit its six 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 Organisation reported this week.

Although the overall figures in the Pacific islands are small compared to larger countries, they are significant among their tiny populations and threaten to overwhelm fragile health care systems.

Tonga reported its first outbreak after the virus arrived with international aid vessels following the January 15 volcano eruption and tsunami. It now has several hundred cases, but — with 66 per cent of its population fully vaccinated — it has so far reported people suffering mostly mild symptoms and no deaths.

The Solomon Islands saw the first outbreak in January and now has thousands of cases and more than 100 deaths. The actual death toll is likely much higher, with the capital’s hospital overwhelmed and many dying at home. Only 12 per cent of Solomon Islanders are fully vaccinated, though the outbreak has provided impetus to the country’s vaccination campaign and 29 per cent have had at least one shot.