More than two million people have lost their lives to the Covid-19 pandemic worldwide, with United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres lamenting the impact of the “evil virus”.
“Our world has reached a heartbreaking milestone,” Guterres announced Friday a video indicates the moment.
“Behind this staggering number are names and faces: the smile is now just a memory, the seat empty at the dinner table forever, the room that resonates with the silence of a loved one,” he added, calling for greater global solidarity. to finance vaccination. efforts to encourage citizens to adhere to controls such as physical distance and masks.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, Covid’s latest milestone was reached on Friday, with an average of 11,900 daily deaths recorded so far in 2021, according to Reuters. This is someone who currently dies every eight seconds because of Covid.
The global death toll hit one million at the end of September, nine months after the new coronavirus was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Unsurprisingly, it took just over three months before the number doubled, and some of the worst-hit countries – including the US, Brazil, Mexico and the UK – saw an increase in infections and deaths.
“What has never been on the doorstep is that so many deaths would occur in the richest countries in the world,” said Dr Bharat Pankhania, an expert in infectious diseases at the University of Exeter. “That the richest countries in the world will run so badly is just shocking.”
The US has the highest official death rate in the world and with over 386,000 deaths, one in four deaths is reported worldwide each day.
The next countries worst affected are Brazil, with more than 207,000 deaths; India with 152,000; Mexico with 138,000; and the United Kingdom with more than 86,000.
Together, the five countries contribute to 50% of all Covid-19 deaths in the world, but represent only 27% of the world population, Reuters reports.
Europe, the worst-hit region in the world, has so far reported more than 615,000 deaths and accounts for almost 31% of all Covid-related deaths worldwide.
Infection rates are also still rising in countries, including Mexico, which on Friday yielded a record 21,366 new infections, roughly double the daily increase of just a week ago. Brazil, where the city of Manaus had oxygen to treat Covid-19 patients, recorded 69 198 new infections in the previous 24 hours.
China, where the disease was first detected, said 130 new cases were recorded on Friday as authorities continued to fight a severe outbreak in the northeast that put more than 28 million people under surveillance.
The total case numbers remain well below what China saw during the outbreak in early 2020, but concerns about a new nationwide wave are mounting with a major national holiday a month away, and estimates of 296 million passenger journeys by rail during the new lunar year break.
In his statement of two million deaths, Guterres urged world leaders to “increase the confidence and knowledge of vaccines with effective fact-based communication”.
But it does not happen everywhere. In Brazil, where an average of more than 1,000 people die every day, President Jair Bolsonaro has repeatedly questioned the safety of vaccines, saying he himself would refuse to be vaccinated.
“No one will be forced to be vaccinated,” Bolsonaro said. promised this week during an internet broadcast. ‘If you do not want it, do not have it. This is your right. After all, we have no evidence [they are safe]. ”
According to the University of Oxford, 35 million doses of various Covid-19 vaccines have been administered worldwide, many of them in rich countries such as the United Kingdom.
On Friday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson claimed that “the biggest and fastest vaccination campaign in our history” was under way, adding: “The chances are high that you know someone personally who has already received a vaccine.”
In the United StatesIncoming President Joe Biden has unveiled ambitious plans to vaccinate 100 million Americans in his first 100 days in office.
“This will be one of the most challenging operational efforts ever undertaken by our country – but you have my word, we will get the operation right,” he said.
India on Saturday launched one of the world’s largest vaccination programs, aiming to vaccinate a quarter of a million people in the coming months, including health workers, people over 50 and people at high risk.
On the first day of the program, 300,000 people had to be vaccinated at 3,000 centers.
But in many developing countries, including Brazil, vaccination has yet to begin, and according to some specialists, the government is convinced that many countries will do even worse this year than last.
“Of course, the pandemic surprised the whole world and killed a lot of people. That’s why you call it a pandemic,” said Mariana Varella, a Brazilian public health writer.
“But we do not have to be in the situation where his number of dead is overwhelmed with the health care system.”