The global coronavirus death toll surpassed 3 million people on Saturday as confirmed cases rose to more than 140 million, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
The gloomy milestones emerge at a time when vaccine distribution has stumbled over concerns about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
“This is not the situation where we want a pandemic within 16 months, where we have proven controls,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, one of the leaders of the World Health Organization (WHO) on COVID-19.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday decided to drop a vote on the guidelines after recommending a break in the use of the J&J vaccine after six cases of a rare, severe blood clot that has nearly 7 million recipients.
The vaccination effort has begun to make progress, surpassing President Biden’s original goal of 100 million jabs in his first 100 days in office. About 66 million Americans have been fully vaccinated since April 8 – just shy of 20% of the total population.
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Dr Anthony Fauci said he hoped the CDC would soon announce new clues about the J&J vaccine so that the spread could continue.
Vaccination campaigns began in the US and Europe in January when the world exceeded the threshold of 2 million deaths, but today more than 190 countries are pushing through the process.
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The process is also plagued by vaccine development problems: China’s health officials announced last week that vaccines developed by Sinovac and Sinopharm ‘do not have very high protection rates’.
The vaccines have already been exported to 22 countries, including Mexico, Turkey, Indonesia and Brazil – some of the current hotspots in the pandemic.
Brazil is the third country hardest hit in the world, with about 13.8 million confirmed cases; however, it recorded 368,749 deaths – the second most worldwide.
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At least one WHO official described the Brazil crisis as a ‘raging hell’.
Global deaths reached a moving average of 12,000 per day.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.